


The Twin Fools

by Totally_not_a_Weeb



Series: The Twin Fools- Verse [1]
Category: Persona 3, Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Angst, Attempt at Humor, Bad Parenting, Being Shiho Is Suffering, Cafe Leblanc (Persona 5), Coffee Shops, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Everyone Is Gay, Everyone Needs A Hug, F/F, Families of Choice, Family Issues, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Inspired by "One Year on Probation", Investigations, Light Angst, Love Confessions, M/M, Minato is Sarcasm, Multiple Pairings, No Metaverse (Persona 5), Not Beta Read, Original Character(s), Other, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Multiple, Physical Abuse, Rape Aftermath, Rating May Change, Ryuji can say fuck, Sarcasm, School, Slice of Life, Suicide Attempt, Tags May Change, Team as Family, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, Twins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-27
Updated: 2018-12-06
Packaged: 2019-03-10 09:03:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 19
Words: 60,871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13498836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Totally_not_a_Weeb/pseuds/Totally_not_a_Weeb
Summary: When twins Minato and Minako are found guilty of crimes that they did not commit, the find themselves on probation in Toyko, the instructions are simple, "One year in Shujin Academy without incident" if only things were that simple, though nothing is simple with the Arisato Twins.I am begging you to comment, please it lets me know that someone is out there who reads my shit and actually thinks enough of it to even write a sentence.Crossposted on Fanfiction.net





	1. The Twin Fools arrive

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [One Year on Probation](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11600493) by [FlOrangey](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlOrangey/pseuds/FlOrangey). 

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The twins arrive in Tokyo, where they shall live uneventfully for their probation, at least, they hope it will be uneventful

**09/04/2017 - 13:00 - Tokyo - Arisato Minako**

Arisato Minako and Arisato Minato were not sure how to feel about their current situation, they were finally not going to be living with a random member of their extended family until they got bored of them and then moved them onto the next member of their family.

 

Though right now, they were on their way to be taken care of one Sakura Sojiro, though one thing that they could do without is the fact that they were also on probation due to an assault charge. Which they got for a crime that they did not commit, well actually, if you squint and ignore the circumstances then they did but that's beside the point.

 

Besides the point, just because they took a wrong turn late at night and had to get involved then they ended up with an assault charge on their record and got them expelled from their high school (which they had been attending for a year, a new record for them as the often only stayed for a single term) This also then led to them being moved on from the latest distant relative, one of their many uncles on their dad's side.

 

The two were fraternal twins, Minako had brown hair done up in a short, high ponytail, complete with a set of hairclips which formed the Roman Numerals for 22, her eyes were a stark red colour that she could not explain as much as she tried.

 

Her brother, Minato had short blue hair which she would admit, was mostly fringe, he had grey eyes that looked almost lifeless if you looked at them, once again, he couldn't explain it.

 

While the difference between their looks was like the difference between night and day, the difference in their personalities was similar. Minako was cheerful and upbeat, always ready to hide whatever was wrong with her behind a cheesy grin and a bad joke, she was cheerful because she had to. In social situations, she was quick on her feet and bubbly, but also rather awkward and was rather plain looking.

 

Minato's demeanour could be described in one word: Listless. He was rather quiet and made efficient use of silence and words, not talking when it was needed. His worldview could be described as Nihilistic, even when the police were taking his photo he remained passive. Despite all this, he had something of a snarky personality and he's protective of his sister. In social situations, he spent more time reacting or just humming in response to something that someone said. He was less awkward than his sister and tended to also appear a bit more charming than her as well.

 

Though there were a few things that the twins had in common besides dead parents and a criminal record. They both had a rather sharp intellect, a powerful sense of justice and a want to protect people around them.

 

In terms of their current situation, they were on their way to Shibuya, where they would transfer trains to get to Yongen-Jaya to get to the house of their new legal guardian.

 

Both of them were dressed in the uniform of the new school they would be attending, Shujin Academy, a rather prestigious school which actually took them in despite their record which was ... surprising to say the least.

 

They both knew what they had to do in order for their probation to be completed and their criminal record wiped, they had to go through one full year at this school and not commit any crimes.

 

In terms of what they were doing on the train, it was simple, Minako was reading the manga which she had with her bag (and may have blown a small part of her budget on) while Minato was on his phone listening to music.

 

**09/04/2017 - 14:00 - Yongen-Jaya - Arisato Minako**

 

Eventually, they got their way through the fun that was the Tokyo public transport and made their way to Yongen-Jaya, moving through the backstreets, they realized that they might have looked a bit suspicious, especially considering the lack of high school students around due to the time of day.

 

Either way, they moved past some cafe and made their way to a rather small two-story house which looked rather respectable despite the fact that it was in a back alley. Though neither of them wanted to be the one to ring the bell, though the fact that owner was out of the house, as was informed by a deliveryman that Sojiro had apparently not taken the day off to meet the people who were going to be staying under his roof for the next year.

 

So they headed to the Cafe which was owned by their new Guardian, the Cafe known as "Leblanc" and made their way inside.

 

**09/04/2017 - 14:10 - Cafe Leblanc - Arisato Minako**

  

The first thing that hit both of them was the smell of the place, it obviously smelt like coffee, but there was also the lingering scent of curry. The next thing was the decor, the floor and walls were all brown hardwood, clearly polished as well. The booths of the cafe had brown leather seats and off-colour white tables, in the corner of the main room there was an old CRT TV that appeared to be playing the tabloid news. The only other inhabitants of the room were an old couple who were getting up from their seats and a middle-aged man wearing a pink shirt with an apron over it, he appeared to be quite interested in the crossword puzzle that he was trying to solve.

 

When he looked up to see the next inhabitants of the room, he was surprised to see young people in his cafe "Not that many teenagers come around here." he said, his voice was rather grumpy sounding and it was clear that the years were getting to him, but despite that he was still rather good looking if you ignored his Crow's Feet. He didn't seem to realize that the two teenagers in front of him were his new charges.

 

"Actually sir." Minako, the more socially eager one began "You're supposed to be our guardian for the year." Her voice sort of trailed off near the end, she wasn't good at talking to adults and it showed.

 

He looked rather surprised at that, while the blue haired one looked like he might hurt someone the brunette seemed like she couldn't hurt a fly. "You? I would have thought it would be the blue haired guy." Minato responded to the reference to him

 

"Both of us are your new charges." He said, deciding to speak, his voice was quiet but it was mature

 

"Oh, yeah, come to think of it, they did tell me it was two kids I would be taking care of." Sojiro trailed off as he remembered the details of the file, two twins, both guilty of assault. "Come with me, I'll show you to your room." He said as he walked up the set of stairs next to the TV. Minato and Minako both followed him up the stairs, taking a slight note of every time the wood of the stairs creaked under their weight. When they arrived in the attic of the Cafe, there were a few things which could be seen at a glance: It was dusty, there was only one bed, it was cluttered, it was spacious.

 

"It's big..." Minako said despite herself upon seeing it.

 

"Hope you weren't expecting five-star accommodations, this isn't an all-expenses-paid trip to Tokyo, this is probation," Sojiro responded rather quickly "If you make any mistake, I won't hesitate to kick both of you out. Got it?" He finished, his voice was short and to the point, he was obviously not happy about their presence

 

"Yes, sir," Minako said, while her brother just nodded.

 

"Just to understand your situation, you were walking home late at night, when you saw a man trying to force himself onto a woman. You intervened and pushed him to the ground, he got injured and pressed charges against you which stuck, that's what you get-"

 

"For sticking our noses into a matter between two adults," Minako said, her voice was drained and it was clear that she did not want to be here. She realized what she said and tensed up in fear of a verbal or physical lashing, but instead, Sojiro looked at her slightly impressed at her courage.

 

"As a result, you got expelled from your old high school and got moved from your last guardian, in other words, they didn't want to deal with your sorry asses." He finished, his voice did have a tinge of sympathy but Minako was sure that she was imagining it, she was something of a bad judge of character. He made to go back downstairs, "Oh, your ... uncle, I think, sent your stuff over, it's in the box." There was indeed a cardboard box there.

 

Minato crouched down to open it, there were a few changes of clothes for both of them as well as few spare changes of the Shujin Academy uniform, in addition, there were also some school supplies, some notebooks, some pens, including both twin's fountain pens. "We need to change clothes." He said, pulling out a pair of jeans and a white t-shirt, throwing his sister her casual clothes, a black tank top and a pair of jean shorts. They both nodded, occupying different sides of the room, they changed clothes and set about making use of some of the cleaning supplies that Sojiro so carefully supplied, or left there in order to turn the attic from run-down to somewhere that was liveable.

 

**09/04/2017 - 20:10 - Cafe Leblanc - Arisato Minako**

 

As darkness fell and the room looked livable, both twins were tired from cleaning the attic, but there was one important factor, there was a brown leather sofa and a single mattress that looked rather moth-bitten and lumpy.

 

"Alright brother, in order to see who gets the mattress, how about we flip a coin?" Minako said, pulling out a ten-yen coin from her purse, he nodded, looking a bit confused as to why she had a single ten yen coin on her in advance "Make a call."

 

"Heads." He said she flipped the coin and it had landed on heads, much to her dismay.

 

"You win again Minato..." Minako said, her voice dripping with faux anger, she laid down on the sofa, "I need a pillow." She heard the sound of creaking and immediately sat up on the sofa. Seeing Sojiro come in with two pillows and two duvets.

 

"Forgot to bring these up for you." He handed each twin one of each, "Heard such a racket downstairs, didn't imagine that you were actually cleaning." It was good to have such a vote of confidence from the Old Man.

 

They both knew that we would probably have to be up early tomorrow, so they both decided to get to sleep before long. The one thought that was on both of their minds before they fell asleep was "I hope this year goes well."


	2. Have you Mentioned that We're not wanted here.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the Twins get introduced to their new school, one thing becomes abundantly clear: No one wants them here or is fond of their general existence.

**10/04/2018 - 06:30 - Cafe Leblanc - Arisato Minato**

 

Minato was the first one to wake up, naturally, though this was in part to his phone alarm, he almost forgot that he was staying in the attic of a Western Style Cafe. He casually got up out of bed, not really bothered to take much time to take account of his situation.

 

There wasn't much use on worrying about his situation when he could be more concerned with improving it. Though on that thought, it was likely that he would be given a tour of the school today, as such, he started to get dressed in his Shujin Academy Uniform. Black blazer with red buttons, white turtleneck shirt and sweater, both of which had the school emblem on it. The turtleneck had a small version around the neck area and the blazer had the emblem on its outside pocket. Next was the trousers, black, red and white plaid pattern, it was a rather interesting design, these trousers were complete with a pair of honest-to-god suspenders. He finished it off with a set of black dress shoes, not meant for running but would still be useful. In addition to this, there was a pin that had the number 2 on it, he guessed that it was meant to indicate the year he was in.

 

When he had finally managed to get dressed, which took him a few minutes, he set about waking up his sister. To do so, he got himself a stick as she could get violent when not properly woken up and he was not in a mood to take risks.

 

"Hm... five more minutes" She mumbled as he started poking her in the side with the stick. He poked again "Finnneeeeee" she moaned as she got up out of bed, her hair frazzled and her eyes still sleepy. She took in the sight of him in uniform, with frazzled hair himself and promptly started laughing, either at the sight of him in uniform or at the uniform itself.

 

"You have to wear this as well." He said, putting a stop to his twin's laughing as a look of faux-dread set in. "I'll get a brush for you." He said, turning around to fetch a brush from the cabinet next to the stairs as she set about getting dressed into uniform.

 

He would admit, he was extra slow at finding the brush and he also then spent some time brushing his hair back into its usual fringe. When he turned around, he saw his sister dressed in uniform as well.

 

A similar blazer, shirt and sweater (there was a hope that the requirements would be eased during late spring and summer) the differences were as follows: a small black ribbon was added to the turtleneck (though given his sister, this was done slightly messily) the trousers were replaced by a skirt with the same pattern, there was a pair of black nylon tights (which his sister had a vicious hatred of) and a sensible pair of Mary Janes. He threw the brush at her and she barely caught it and set about doing her hair.

 

This was similar to their normal morning routine, get dressed in the school uniform of the month, whoever got up first got to get the phones ready as well as earphones, it was a simple routine but the liked it for its simplicity.

 

Though their routine was interrupted by Sojiro coming upstairs, indicated by the loud creaking sounds that the obviously ageing wood made when weight was put on it. What both twins were not prepared for was what he was wearing.

 

He was wearing the same (or a similar) pair of khaki trousers and light pink shirt. Though it was what else he was wearing, he was wearing an off-colour white blazer and a white fedora. In short, he was dressed like a pimp, in the presence of two teenagers who he had custody over, oh this is going to be a funny story when they both arrived back in Juvie.

 

Minato handled it a lot better than his sister, he just raised a single eyebrow and a good half of his mouth twitched into a smirk. Minako, on the other hand, did everything possible to avoid bursting out laughing, this was done by actually holding her hand over her mouth. Sojiro's disapproval of Minako was palpable, but he seemed to be able to handle his disapproval and opened his mouth "Glad to see you're both dressed, come on, I've got to take you to Shujin. I'm going to introduce both of you to the Principal there." They both nodded, understanding the situation they were in. As they walked down the stairs, Minato handed his sister her phone and her red pair of earphones, slipping his own grey earphones into his ears and starting to play music on his phone.

 

**10/04/2018 - 7:45 - Shujin Academy - Arisato Minato**

 

While it didn't take long by Tokyo standards to get there, it took long by most people's standards, the drive lasted just under an hour and this was on a good day. Either way, the twins and their guardian exited the off-colour white car (Minato decided that Sojiro probably had a fetish for that colour) and made their way to the principle's office, where Minako had to, successfully, manage to not laugh as she laid eyes on the large form of the principle.

 

It was hard to not laugh though, to say he was overweight would be an understatement, the best description of the man would be more fat than anything else, his double chin seemed to go all the way around his neck and it was a wonder how he was even still alive. The only hair on his head was his black eyebrows, which was thankfully not buried under the fat. He was clearly middle-aged based off both his Crow's Feet and his position. In terms of what he was wearing, he was wearing a beige suit, white dress shirt and red bow tie, though both twins, probably Sojiro and most likely all of his employees were probably wondering where he bought this suit from.

 

Standing next to him was a far more pleasant figure, a woman with black, shoulder-length, curly hair, dressed in a yellow sweater with a denim skirt that went down to her knees. Her face spoke of being long-suffering and tired beyond human comprehension.

 

"Principal Kobayakawa? I'm Sakura Sojiro, I'm here to introduce your transfer student to you." Sojiro said as he entered the room, his hat was respectfully removed. The twins stood off to the side, knowing that it would be best to remain completely silent during this exchange.

 

What followed was a long monologue from the Principal about how the twins were in his school and how they should behave and how if so much as took a piss, he'd know about it and he never seemed to stop talking so it sort of becomes white noise at some point. Eventually, he stopped talking for more than five seconds. Then, his mouth opened again

 

"I'll reiterate in order to be clear, you'll be expelled immediately if you cause any problems. To be honest, we only took you in because there were positive circumstances in our favour." In other words, the school would benefit from being able to reform a delinquent

 

Minato simply nodded while Minako, in an effort to be polite, said, "I understand." both bowed after that. While they did not like the situation or the man in front of them, they knew that being polite would make this problem a lot smoother.

 

"Glad to know that you understand your position." He motioned to the woman next to him, who looked a bit uncomfortable being in the principles office for so long "This is your homeroom teacher: Kawakami Sadayo."

 

The quiet woman spoke up upon hearing her name "I'm Kawakami Sadayo." She reiterated, she walked up to them and handed them something "Here's your student ID and handbook. Make sure to read the school rules, breaking them will have you sent straight to the guidance office. If you do cause any problems there is nothing I can do to protect you. You are responsible for all of your actions here." This was spoken with a level of apathy and general uninterest that one would expect from an accountant. "The schedule for this year is in the handbook. But in the event that you don't look at it, we have a volleyball rally on the 13th. Club activities begin next week, a list of clubs are in the book. Though I get the feeling you won't be welcome at any of them"

 

To be honest, both of the twins were getting annoyed, his homeroom teacher was making it clear that his presence was a burden and that he would not be welcome in the school, it wouldn't be so bad if she wasn't talking about it like they weren't standing right in front of her. Sojiro also appeared to be getting annoyed as he started tapping his foot on the floor.

 

"Can we go? I've got a store to get back to." Sojiro said, his patience eventually running out.

 

"Of course, but Sojiro, do make sure to keep an eye on them. Who knows what they did back in the country but here, we have to be sure to reform them."

 

"Of course, I understand how important this is."

 

The homeroom teacher spoke up again "Be sure to come to the faculty office on the second floor when you arrive here tomorrow. I'll show you to your class." She spoke, her attitude and her posture spoke volumes about how displeased she was at the existence of them and the fact that they were in her class. As they exited the principal's office, Minako was quietly counting down until the door to the principal's office closed.

 

"That could have gone better." She said, stretching slightly. Sojiro gave her a look of disappointment but found himself agreeing with them. As they walked through the school and made their way to the entrance, one thing was made clear to the twins and that was that no one here was too fond of their presence or their pure existence. Sojiro stopped them when they arrived at the shoe lockers

 

"They're treating you like a nuisance." He said, sighing slightly, he seemed slightly disappointed by that, like he seemed to be with everything else in his life.

 

"I think I'll scrape by," Minato said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

 

"I could save some time and kick you out right now if that's going to be your attitude." He sighed again. "Seems like school never changes." They walked out of the building and entered the car again.

 

**10/04/2018 - 18:00 - Some road in Tokyo, around Shibuya, maybe? - Arisato Minato**

 

They were in a car that wasn't moving, a side effect of principal Kobayakawa talking for so long was that they were stuck in rush hour traffic. Minato was woken up by the sound of Sojiro pounding his fist on the dashboard of the car while growling in frustration. "Traffic's not moving at all..." He seemed to be considering something "You're taking the train to school tomorrow." he seemed like he wanted to take his mind off the fact that his car's engine could overheat in this traffic "So how is it, the school I mean. Think you can manage?"

 

Minato and Minako both answered at the same time "I'll live." "It'll be fun."

 

"What troublesome kids I've taken in," He said, seeming to regret all his decisions up until this point

 

Minako was looking for some way to ask the question that was on her mind without sounding rude but Minato beat her to the punch "Why did you take us in?"

 

Sojiro seemed to sweat a bit upon hearing this, "It's nothing, I was asked and I happened to agree." He said, unconvincingly, making Minato think that he was something of a Tsundere "I was paid as well, of course." Of course, that explained it fully. The car was not moving by much in this traffic and the hatred of everyone in the car for the asshole who was in the car in front of them was heavily present.

 

Both twins were reading through the Student Handbook and listening to music in order to pass the time, Minato never really saw the appeal of school clubs especially considering the fact that he was often times not involved in school's long enough to get to first name basis. Though there was something which interested him, the school did have a Martial Arts Club which he was a bit interested in, mostly because he wanted to be able to protect himself and his sister in the future. Minako, on the other hand, found her interests in the Shogi Club, while she wasn't all that good at the game, she was able to make some good progress, though in most cases she never really stuck around long enough to be able to get a good feel on the playstyles of her opponents. Though both knew that their aspirations of joining the school clubs were most likely not going to result in much, they weren't going to be welcome and chances are a few people would be able to come up with some rumours about these Sudden Transfer Students.

 

**10/04/2018 - 22:00 - Cafe Leblanc - Arisato Minato**

 

In the end, Sojiro wasn't able to open up the store today and he did blame both of them for it. Neither saw fit to remind him that he could have just sent them on their way, this was mostly because they did not want to get kicked out.

 

In terms of living accommodations, they were to live in the Cafe and if they were spotted on the Cafe's Cameras or by the owner trying to steal anything, they would be dragged kicking and screaming back to Juvie, most likely literally. They basically ended up getting some convenience store noodles as a dinner, it wasn't all that filling, but it was better than nothing. They were both going to go upstairs when the bright yellow pay phone rang, Minato was the one who answered it.

 

"Hello?" He spoke into the phone. Waiting for a response

 

"Oh good, I was wondering if you were going to pick up." The voice was familiar, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

 

"Who is this?" He spoke, his voice was audibly tired and he was just hoping that nothing bad would happen.

 

"Have you forgotten my voice already?" The voice spoke, sounding annoyed "It's me, Sojiro." Ah, that explains why the voice was familiar. "I forgot to flip the sign from open to closed when I locked up, could you just flip it over for me?"

 

"Yes, Sir," Minato said, noting that Sojiro hung up after Minato said yes. He got up with a sigh and did one of the most difficult tasks he was ever tasked with, he flipped the sign to 'closed' and then felt accomplished at completing such a difficult task. He noted that his sister had already cleaned up the cup noodles and was upstairs.

 

He walked upstairs and saw that his sister was already in her sleeping clothes, a black tank top and a pair of grey sweatpants. He went to change into his sleeping clothes which were similar, a black t-shirt and a pair of grey sweatpants. She was looking in the other direction, out of politeness as she let her hair down.

 

He sat down on his bed as she looked like she was ready to say something. "Just to be clear, this entire situation is bullshit, right?" she spoke, she didn't really swear a lot so this was a bit unusual.

 

"I think they would rather we didn't exist," Minato said, answering the question and offering his viewpoint at the same time.

 

"That sounds about right." She sighed "Hopefully, the teacher doesn't let slip our criminal record. We do not need that." She plugged her phone into the charger "How many minutes do you think we'll need to be sure that we get into school?"

 

"Thirty to an hour." He answered, looking at the alarm on his phone as he set it back an hour. After doing so, he lay down on his bed and got to sleep.


	3. The First Day is Always the Hardest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Both of the Arisato Twins go to Shujin Academy for their first of day of mandatory schooling for their probation. Unfortunately, Shujin is a gossipy mess with a rumour mill that seems to be about as big as the school.

**11/04/2018 - 5:30 - Cafe Leblanc - Arisato Minato**

 

Both Minako and Minato got up at the same time and made their way to quickly get dressed in school uniforms. The thing that woke them up was Minato's alarm which was set to loud death metal in order to make sure that they would get up.

 

"Why'd we agree to get up at such an ungodly hour?"  Minako asked, her voice was clearly in a whinging mode as she woke up. She couldn't actually remember the last time she got up at such a time.

 

"We'd need to add an hour to our schedule to figure out the route," Minato answered, his response was just as displeased with the situation. Neither of the twins was pleased with the fact that the School Uniform included suspenders, it was a minor complaint, but it was still important. Both managed to get ready in a few minutes with their earphones in their pockets and phones in hand, with schoolbags over their shoulder.

 

When they came down the stairs, they noticed Sojiro Sakura standing there behind the counter. In front of him were two plates of curry.

 

"You're actually going to school?" Sojiro questioned apparently surprised at that, he looked up at the clock on the wall "A bit early, you think?"

 

"Don't want to be late," Minato said, he was more of a morning person than his sister, who was almost nocturnal.

 

"Hold on." He placed a glass of water next to each of the plates of curry. "You'll probably need some breakfast. Just eat it up before the customers start lining up." They were surprised by the breakfast curry, but they were not complaining and they started eating it, loving just how good it tasted, either it was from the fact that it was for breakfast, or that it was from some sort of scientifically modified recipe. It didn't matter with the help of the curry, they felt their spirits soar, and the feeling of waking up at such an ungodly hour didn't seem so bad.

 

"Thanks for the food." Both the twins said, bowing slightly as they said that. On their way out, they flipped the sign to 'Open'.

 

**11/04/2018 - 5:45 - Yongen-Jaya - Arisato Minako**

 

The sun was just barely in the sky and the two twins were wondering how they would be able to get to the Subway.

 

Minako decided on the simplest option, she walked up to some rather old man who seemed to be in his early fifties. "Excuse me." She began. "Don't suppose you can tell me how to get to the Subway?"

 

"Just go back out this alley and turn left at the intersection. From there, you'll see the main road. Or you could keep going straight through here. It can get a bit tight though." He answered, surprisingly helpfully.

 

"Thank you very much." She said, bowing. She looked up to her brother "Come on, the trains won't wait for us." They both ran down the alley, casually shifting to get out of the way of a man who seemed to be walking out of the subway. true to the old man's word it was a tight fit but it wasn't surprising.

 

**11/04/2018 - 7:35 - Aoyama-Itchome - Arisato Minako**

 

Well, one thing was for sure, the rumours about the Tokyo Subway were true, it really was cramped to all hell. Another thing they knew was that it was raining like heavily raining, the best bit was: They forgot their umbrellas and everyone didn't seem to want to share with them.

 

As they stood under the awning of some shop, they looked up at the rain and then at the time, then back to the rain again, sizing up the odds of them being able to arrive on the school in time without looking like a drowned rat.

 

Minako looked at a figure that was next to her. Wearing a Shujin Academy Uniform only instead of the standard skirt and black nylons, this figure was instead wearing a white hoody with red tights. The hood was up on the hoody because the girl (based on the figure's curvature) was smart. She removed her hood and Minako swears that for a second time stopped.

 

The girl was beautiful, her features were certainly Japanese in origin, but her strawberry blonde hair (done up in two large pigtails) and sky blue eyes certainly dismissed that notion. The girl was certainly pretty, she could probably be an idol or a model with those looks. Though thinking about it, she was somewhat familiar. Minako realised that she was staring and looked at the ground, her face slightly red, though she heard the foreign girl laughing a beautiful sound.

 

A car pulled up in front of them, one of the windows on the car, revealing a man in a tracksuit with a massive chin, he had curly hair and seemed to radiate an aura of danger. "Wonderful day isn't it?" Minato seemed to start twitching at someone else using his schtick and it was a poor use of it as well. "You might want to get a ride to school." He said, while it was worded more like a suggestion, it sounded more like an order.

 

Now it was important to remember that both the Arisato Twins had one of the most basic rules in their heads 'Don't get into cars with strangers' which is why they were surprised by the blonde teen getting into the car, Minato didn't do anything if she wanted to make a poor life choice, it was on her. Minako was a bit worried though, she did notice that the blonde looked very uncomfortable about getting into the car, which did beg a question: why'd she take the ride?

 

"You two want a ride?" The man said, his voice was rich in just a feeling of wrongness. Both twins shook their heads, even Minato felt something wrong with this man. But they both couldn't put their finger on it to save their lives. The car pulled away and the twins were delighted to know that the rain had eased up, they were annoyed to find out that there was very little time left before school started.

 

"Goddammit!" Some blond kid shouted as he ran up to where the car previously was, he then kicked his foot into a puddle for effect. Of course, there would be another distraction. "Screw that piece of shit pervy teacher!"

 

"Pervy Teacher?" Minako asked, she was not sure but the kid could be referring to that guy in a tracksuit.

 

"What you going to rat me out to Kamoshida?" The boy responded, sneering slightly, it was at this point that both the twins got a good look at him. Unkempt and slightly spiky blonde hair that didn't quite look natural, black eyebrows, Japanese features. The boy was hunched over slightly, his hands in his pockets. He wore the Shujin Academy blazer and trousers (which were rolled up to his ankles) but that was the only uniform they could find, he also wore a pair of canvas shoes (that were quite wet from the rain and the puddle kicking) and a bright yellow graphic T-shirt, all in all, the boy gave one distinct impression, a delinquent.

 

But more to the matter, there was the question of who the hell is Kamoshida? "Who?" Minato said, voicing his question

 

"The guy who Takamaki-Chan got into a car with?" Yet another name they did not recognise, if they looked confused, this delinquent didn't seem to notice it as he continued "Piece of shit does whatever he wants, he thinks he's king of the castle or something."

 

"King of the - what the hell are you talking about?" Minako asked the fact that this boy was swearing like a sailor and wasn't making any sense made both the twins wonder if they should be associating with him.

 

"Wait you don't know about Kamoshida?" The boy stepped closer to her, looking specifically at her pin "That pin says your a second year. You should be used to this shit by now."

 

The boy was looking both of the twins up and down, frowning before he realised something "Wait, I don't recognise you, you a transfer student or something?" Well, didn't that sound like it could be insulting, but Minako didn't want to get into an argument with an obvious delinquent

 

"Yeah, also I don't want to be late on my first day." Minako voiced the opinion of both twins, the teenager pulled out his phone and almost jumped when he realised the time.

 

"Shit! Don't worry, I know a shortcut, it should shave a few minutes off." He moved down an until-then-unnoticed alleyway, "Follow me." both the twins looked at each other as if to say 'Is this guy trying to trick us?' but the then decided to follow him down the alley, at this point all they cared about was actually making it to school on time. They walked through a series of alleyways, thankfully the vulgar boy was not intent on making small talk eventually, they managed to get their way to Shujin. The building was rather impressive looking now that they thought about it.

 

"Well, here we are, its a college prep school. Though if you ask me, it's more like a fucking prison." The Vulgar boy said both of the twins knew that this boy was not giving the word its full justice.

 

"Thank you," Minato said, his voice cold and emotionless.

 

"No problem, I have to head to Homeroom." The Vulgar Boy said, "anything else you need before we break off?"

 

"Could you tell me how to get to the faculty office?" Minako said.

 

"Ah sure, not sure why'd you want to go there, just go up to the second floor, right next to the stairs, can't miss it really."

 

"Thanks!" Minako said as she ran ahead, Minato nodded and ran to catch up with his sister.

 

They went up to the shoe locker and replaced their shoes with school slippers and walked into the main area of the school. Minako was the first to hear it though, the incessant whispering.

_"Hey isn't that them?"_

_"The school let in criminals"_

_"People like them have no place in here."_

_"The blue haired one's rather scary."_

Well, that rose several questions and Minako was shaken by it, why do they know about their criminal record, though there was a hope that they were just guessing, they started to walk up the stairs, noticing that other students were giving them space and more space than the common 'new kid' courtesy, this was more the 'being scared of someone' space.

_"Hey, don't make eye contact."_

_"My parents are pissed..."_

_"The principal really is crazy."_

More incessant whispering, there were a few which mentioned the words 'criminal' and 'assault'. When Minako heard this, she gripped hard on her phone which was in her pocket. She couldn't believe that they knew about this, even Minato looked a bit shaken.

 

When they made their way to the faculty office where a tired and annoyed looking Kawakami looked at them with a mixture of pity and surprise. "Take a seat." They both complied "I'm sure you've heard on your way here, there's no beating around the bush about it. Your records leaked." Minato's eyes widened, but Minako had a worse reaction to it.

 

"WHAT!" She shouted, before pausing "I'm sorry, I'm just a bit angry. Please continue." thank god for the breathing exercises that Minato told her about.

 

"We were informed in the morning that your records found their way onto the school forum," Kawakami explained a bit scared at the apparently violent temper of the girl in front of her "If it makes you feel any better, I didn't have a part in it. I'm sure you want to know who did it, but I don't know." She sighed "If you wanted to have a quiet school year and have some friends, you're probably out of luck. I can probably stop most of it in my homeroom class, however though, for the rest of the day, the best suggestion I can give is to make yourself as small as possible. Also, pay attention in class and go straight home after school." Kawakami got up and they decided to follow her, her movements led all the way to outside of a classroom, which they guessed was theirs.

 

"All right, this is your class. I'm going to introduce you to your class try not to say anything unnecessary." Kawakami instructed, she walked into the room and stopped in front of the blackboard. "Alright class, I'm sure you've heard the rumours, but we have some new transfer students joining us today." She waved the twins in, Minato entered easily, Minako took a small breath to calm herself and then entered. "These are our new transfer students, now I know you've heard about their unique circumstances, but I hope that you'll treat them with the same respect as any other member of the class." Both twins took that as the cue to introduce themselves

 

"I'm Arisato Minato. Pleased to meet you." Minato said first, bowing respectfully.

 

"I'm Arisato Minako, please take care of me," Minako said afterwards, bowing less respectfully. Both of their introductions had predictably caused more rumours to circulate.

_"Oh, that boy is really cute."_

_"I hear she's demure, but when she loses it."_

_"I heard they'll slug you if you look at one of them."_

_"I hear she castrated a man."_

_"I hear the boy carries a knife on him."_

Both of the twins kept their heads down upon hearing the rumours, Minato managed to successfully not let his anger show on his face, but Minako had no such luck, it was clear that she was angry. Just in time to see another student, a grey-haired boy with a bowl cut say something to his neighbour. "Careful, she'll shank you if you get too close."

 

Minako locked eyes with the grey-haired boy. "Alright, let's get you to your seats." Kawakami said, "Minako you'll sit behind Takamaki-san. Takamaki-san?" The blonde girl from earlier raised her hand, Minako took her seat, keeping her eyes locked with the grey-haired boy until she sat down, sending a clear message that she heard him. "Minato, sit in the desk next to your sister." Minato nodded and sat down at his desk. They just hoped that this wasn't the high point in their day.

**11/04/2018 - 15:30 -** **Aoyama-Itchome - Airsato Minato**

 

Minako and Minato were not lent any textbooks by other students, they were openly ridiculed and mocked by a good half of the students, most of the teachers saw fit to comment on the fact that they existed and they did this in a negative manner, there were at least ten different rumours about them started that day alone, ranging from what crimes they might have committed, to their sexual orientation, to whether or not they kick puppies as an exercise routine. In addition, it was obvious that the paper that was thrown at their heads was not someone missing the bin.

 

Though this led to different reactions from different twins, Minato didn't let this register on his face, much, but it was still present, the man could bottle up anger, but he'd need to have some way to release it soon. Minako on the other hand, while she tried to hide her anger and sadness behind a happy, smiling mask, that mask was slowly starting to crack. She did not like it when people talked about her behind her back, she rarely even minded bad shit said about her as long as she can hear it and respond to it.

 

They both stepped onto the train, taking Kawakami's advice to heart and immediately headed home.

 

**04/11/2018 - 17:30 - Cafe Leblanc - Arisato Minako**

 

"Bad day?" Sojiro asked as they stepped through the door.

 

"You don't know the half of it, Sakura-san," Minako said, "Our records were leaked, so I got to hear for a full day, that I apparently castrated a man, with my bare hands once." She was ready to vent at him, but she knew he didn't deserve it. "Sorry, I'm a bit annoyed," She said, knowing that when she started venting it was hard to stop.

 

"I can tell." Sojiro said, "You're radiating an aura of an angry, kicked puppy." There's a mental image.

 

"Please put me out of my misery. It would seriously help me out in the long run." Minako said, lying down on one of the booths. Thankfully, the cafe was empty.

 

"I'll consider it, for now, go upstairs, I don't want you scaring off any late customers."

 

Both the twins headed upstairs and looked at each other, they both decided that this month at least was going to be bullshit.


	4. A Delinquent's Help

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shujin's resident delinquent/track traitor seeks to help the school's newest students.

**12/04/2018 - 7:10 - Tokyo Subway - Sakamoto Ryuji**

 

Sakamoto Ryuji was a man who, quite honestly, was running out of things to care about in Shujin Academy, ever since the disbanding of the Track Team, he had lost his method of getting a College Scholarship, his friends became somewhat more distant to him ever since his branding as a "Delinquent" by the student body, a reputation he didn't help with his attitude and appearance. Of course, the branding his friends gave him of "Track Traitor" didn't help either.

 

Though the other day, there was something for him to care about, two new students who didn't seem to avoid him despite his appearance, well they kind of looked at him funny, but that was expected. The two students already had a heavy helping of rumours surrounding them and he was sure that about all of it was exaggerated, half-truths or straight up lies.

 

According to the rumours, the new students, Arisato Minato and Arisato Minako were criminals arrested for assault, but in addition, they probably trafficked drugs and people, assaulted several with knives, murdered a man and even did drugs. He knew that at least most of it was bullshit and he was actually very worried about them, from what little he was able to see from them yesterday, the brunette, Minako, was very angry looking and the Blue haired one, Minato, looked like low-key done.

 

He was currently on the train, holding onto the railing with his right hand and scrolling through the phone with his left, not even minding the fact that he was pushed up against a few random strangers

 

The number 1 trending topic on the forum was the thread marked "Scary New Students" the first poster was anonymous and it only had the link to two PDF files, the first one was for Minako, it showed an image of a rather distraught looking Minako, her assault charge, as well as some of her previous grades and previous schools (It only showed the first page, the rest of the pages were not on this file). One thing that seemed to stick out the most was the number of different schools that she seemed to go to, she seemed to jump between schools every term. He looked at it, not really understanding half of the Kanji in the forms, the next PDF was predictably about Minato, it showed an image of a rather listless looking Minato, his assault charge was once again, front and centre on the page. Under that was the previous schools and grades, his grades were the same as Minako and indicated that he was rather smart, though the number of schools was the same as his sister.

 

After glancing over the PDF files, he looked at the rest of the thread, the first few pages were comments on how the students were thankful or whoever leaked the Arisato twin's records (made him sick about it). The next few were comments from yesterday, it was about how they saw the Twins in school and how scary they looked. Including one which said "I said something that I heard about Minako and she just locked eyes with me for a solid thirty seconds. She sits in front of me as well."

 

Ryuji sighed upon looking at that, honestly what did they expect, the school's gossipers had terrible volume control at the best of times.

 

"The Train is now approaching Aoyama-Itchome Station. The Train is now approaching Aoyama-Itchome Station. Doors will be opening on the right side." The in-train announcement said, cutting off any new thoughts about the twins. Ryuji put his phone back into his pocket. He didn't want Shujin Academy to claim another victim.

 

**12/04/2018 - 12:50 - Shujin Prison - Sakamoto Ryuji**

 

He did some asking around, apparently, the twins were in class 2-D, the same class as Ann was in.  He entered the classroom and saw both of the twins, at their desks, Minako seemed to be reading something while Minato seemed to be studying.

 

"Hey!" Ryuji began. causing both the twins to look up, Minako quickly hid her manga, flash a bit flushed, what the hell was she reading? Yaoi? Minato looked up from his work, a look of disinterest. "Could I have a chat with you, on the roof?" Both the twins looked at each other, shrugged and both got up. He wondered exactly how they both communicated, was it a case of reading facial cues. Minako visibly hid her manga in her left blazer pocket. From what Ryuji could see, the cover seemed to involve someone with a light-haired character and dark-haired character, so that narrowed it down to every other romance manga.

 

They walked up rather silently to the roof, the lock of which was removed sometime last year by Ryuji and the track team, it was a good hideout spot during lunch. If he remembered correctly, there were a few desks and chairs which would allow for a good meeting at some time or another. Either way, he sat down at one of the seats and looked at both of the twins expectedly.

 

"So..." Minako began, seeming to struggle with the conversation, tapping her foot lightly on the concrete of the roof. "Why'd you call us up here?"

 

"I wanted to see how you were doing?" Ryuji supplied, he would admit, it would nice to have friends again, but for now, his main focus was helping the twins. "The rumour mills have been wild about you, half of the shit they say is just plain ridiculous." Minato's left eye seemed to start twitching at that, probably hit a nerve

 

"I noticed," Minako said, supplying a response for both her and her brother. "I had to spend a whole school day hearing about how I castrated a man with my bare hands. Today, it's about how my brother is my pimp." definitely hit a nerve. "So yeah, I'm doing just fine."

 

"Ouch," Ryuji said, trying to figure out a way to ask about her record without pissing her off "For what little it's worth, I don't think you do any of the shit the school's accused you off."

 

"T-thanks..."  Minako said, sounding genuinely shocked "You know you're the first person to have said that. Why though?"

 

"Well, last year, near the end of it anyway, I was the School Delinquent." Ryuji explained, not giving a full explanation, "So I suppose I know what its like, not fully, but I have some idea." He scratched the back of his neck "Hell, I read your leaked records, it only shows the first page." That caused Minato to raise an eyebrow.

 

"Really?" He said. Ryuji could tell what the other twin was thinking, but it probably wasn't something good.

 

"Yeah, just the first page, your criminal record and front and goddamn centre." he supplied, hoping that was the answer that the blue-haired twin wanted. it probably was, as the blue-haired boy wanted, as he put his hand to his chin in the universal 'thinking' pose.

 

"Hmm..." he hummed under his breath "only one page, record front and centre, would mean that's the first thing they see..." he mumbled under his breath, mumbling a few more things which Ryuji couldn't pick up. Minkao also seemed to be taking another 'thinking' pose.

 

"You think that they have an agenda against criminals?" She said

 

"You doesn't?" Minato said, "How did they get our record?" he then waved it off, "nevermind, I'll think about it later."

 

"Hey, I never caught your name blondie," Minako said, going out of the thinking pose.

 

"Oh, crap forgot all about it." Ryuji stood up, "My name is Sakamoto Ryuji Please, just call me Ryuji."

 

"Well okay then Ryuji, do you mind if we meet up after school?" Minako asked she looked at her brother who nodded, "Minato even wants to talk to you as well. So you know it's good!"

 

"Sure! I'll meet you in front of the second-floor stairs." Ryuji answered, just in time to hear the bell ring, signifying the end of the lunch break. There was something funny about watching the twins powerwalk down the stairs in order to not piss off the hall monitors.

**12/04/2018 - 15:10 - Shujin Prison - Sakamoto Ryuji**

"Hey, Minako!" Ryuji shouted, getting her attention as well as the attention of a good half of the school. Both the twins looked miserable as normal, though Minako also seemed to have a lump on her forehead. "where'd you get that lump?" Curiosity overtook politeness and he had to ask.

 

"The feared 'death-chalk of Ushimaru' I keep hearing about," Minako answered, raising her right hand up to smooth out the bump on her head "Also, watch your volume or the latest rumour would be about us forming a gang." Minato seemed to chuckle at that, it was a sound that Ryuji never thought he'd hear, a somewhat high sound that was very quiet, but noticeable.

 

"Where'd you want to go, I can give you a proper city welcome," Ryuji said, it was nice to have friends again and it showed, he felt one of the first genuine smiles on his face in a long time.

 

"Okay, but we'd have to cut it short, we have to get home at around eightish," Minako said, looking at her phone. they both walked down the stairs as Ryuji had an idea of where to go.

 

**12/04/2018 - 16:30 - The best place in Tokyo - Sakamoto Ryuji**

 

"Well here's the place," Ryuji said as Shujin's newly formed gang entered the beef bowl place, due to the time restrictions (and his own wallet) he made sure to bring them to his favourite place in the city to relax. After ordering three regulars, his treat, the gang sat at a table in the corner.

 

"So... Why exactly this place?" Minato asked, looking around, he had his earphones out, but there was still music spilling out from them, from what he could tell it sounded a bit like hip-hop stuff.

 

"Its the best place in Tokyo to give you a city welcome. Honestly, what couldn't you love about this place? Warm, fresh beef, ginger, good sauce and good company. It's what makes it one of the best places in Tokyo." Ryuji slouched on his stool as he held his arms up as if gesturing to everything in the shop. Both twins seemed to be considering what he had said.

 

He was right, the pace seemed quite warm and the smells of freshly cooked beef were constantly wafting from the kitchen, something which reminded them, quite loudly that none of them had actually had lunch. When the beef bowls actually arrived, it only made both the twins think he was even more right, they'd think that a place that got as many customers as it dead would have long frozen beef, but it was fresh, the food was cooked to near perfection and it was so warm.

 

**12/04/2018 - 16:55 - The best place in Tokyo - Sakamoto Ryuji**

 

After spending far too long chatting and eating from their bowls, the gang had finally finished, the filling beef in their stomachs. Ryuji was slouching slightly on his stool, Minato was sitting at his normal posture with a slight grin on his face, Minako was grinning ear to ear, checking her phone.

 

"I think we're good for time, we could go for something else." She said, looking at her phone. "Anything else we should go to for our proper city welcome?"

 

"No, I didn't really have anything planned out, you might want to get back to your folk's place, the subway at five should not be fucked with. But, as for the bill: well... consider it my treat." Ryuji was regretting his words already, each of the gang had eaten two bowls, this would be expensive.

 

"Hell no, we're splitting the bill," Minako said, pulling out her purse "No offence, but you do not want to be paying for our bullshit metabolism."

 

Minato also pulled out his wallet "We'll eat you out of house and home." He said with that smile on his face, it might have sounded very rude, but it looked like every time he smiled, a puppy died.

 

"Cheque please," Minako said, as the rest of the gang put in their third of the bill, the total came up to a few thousand yen, regrettably.

 

**12/04/2018 - 19:00 - Ryuji's house - Sakamoto Ryuji**

 

Ryuji sighed as he entered his house, the place was run down as always, though his mother's insistence that he doesn't get a job did not help things, he just wished that he could help, though his way of helping would probably be by getting good grades.

 

Even though he knew this, it didn't stop him from being pissed off, mainly at his dad and at the world. "I'm home!" He shouted into the small house, only to be greeted by silence, okay so he was alone in the house again.

 

As much as he was running out of things to care about, his new friends were reason enough to care about something. Minako Arisato and Minato Arisato, the twins guilty of assault and accused of several thousand other crimes by Shujin's rumour mill. He hoped that this friendship would be long-lasting and he already knew that what got them convicted was probably a miscarriage of justice.

 

He went around the house and dressed got dressed in his PJs, while he intended to do some studying later, he knew that he would be going to sleep soon, the stress of trying to make sure that he was able to get friends who he had no idea what he had in common with was stressful. He just hoped that the volleyball rally tomorrow wouldn't be such shit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Due to the fact that Ryuji is the point of view for this chapter, I figured I'd use more of his perspective on things in the location thingy. Hence, the "Shujin Prison"


	5. The Volleyball Rally

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Volleyball rally happens and the Arisato Twins start to get themselves involved in trying to bust Kamoshida for what he was doing to the Volleyball team

**13/04/2018 - 7:30 - Shujin Academy – Arisato Minato**

 

For once, based on a combination of quickly running, catching a few earlier trains and wolfing down breakfast, the twins had arrived at Shujin before homeroom began.

 

For Minato, it was a chance to use his phone to make sure that his fringe was still in perfect condition, though, to his irritation, he noticed that some of his hair dye was fading as the brown roots were now visible to the naked eye.

 

For his sister, it was a chance to get caught up on the homework that she had missed yesterday (it's not her fault that English was hard). The class was barely half full and more importantly, getting in this early meant that they didn't have to hear most of the school's rumours.

 

Though, if they remembered correctly, today was the volleyball rally. Upon remembering this, Minato heavily sighed. "Volleyball rally today," he said, causing his sister to sigh even more heavily

 

"Shit," She said, both of the twins were not in shape, by any stretch the of the imagination, and this was a school which prided itself at volleyball, this would be fun.

_"I hear, they're starting a gang with Sakamoto."_

_"Wait, really?"_

_"Yeah, I saw them walking together."_

The somewhat peaceful serenity of the classroom was disturbed as some gossipy students walked in and received a flat glare from both of the twins. The trio of students who were walking in shakily made their way to their desks under the constant glare of Minako and the disinterested eyes of Minato.

 

The trio started gossiping some more if only more quietly, there was one thing that both the twins had realised, that this was going to be a fun day.

**13/04/2018 - 8:09 - P.E. Hall – Arisato Minako**

 

It was at this moment that Minako realised just how terrible the school's gym clothes looked, it was simply a bright red tracksuit with bright white stripes on the sleeves and the legs. She wore it with the tracksuit jacket zipped up and with the trousers not open or rolled up. In terms of where she was, she was sitting at one of the sides of the Hall, separated from her brother, who was on the opposite side of the hall, sitting next to Ryuji.

 

Minato wore the tracksuit like he wore most clothes, surprisingly well, the tracksuit top was open, revealing his white t-shirt, the trousers are worn properly as well. Ryuji, in comparison, had done away with the tracksuit jacket, instead opting to wear an off-colour white sleeveless shirt. His tracksuit bottoms were worn like Ryuji wore his school trousers, the legs were rolled up to about above the ankles.

 

Minako was sitting in the corner trying to make herself as small as possible, an unfortunate side effect of her childhood, she wasn't all that good alone, it made the rest of the world seem so ... cold, she supposes that she is quite dependent on her brother.

_"Look at her, it's the delinquent."_

_"You mean the one who castrated a man?"_

_"Yeah, that one"_

_"I hear she's having a threesome with_

_her brother and Ryuji."_

_"Really?"_

"I'm right here you know," Minako said before her brain could catch up to what she said, the gossipy girls looked at her with disdain, either from her normal existence or the fact that she pointed out that she was there.

 

"So?" One of the girls, a rather pretty looking one with long black shiny hair said, if Minako was to lie, she would say that the look of the girl did nothing to her, but, to be honest, the look of the girl did cause her heart to speed up a bit. Though the scowl that the girl was wearing did not enhance her beauty, this was the girl who brought up the threesome rumour.

 

"So, could you please not talk about me like I'm not here."  Minako said, realising that she was committed to this, she silently cursed the fact that she couldn't just keep quiet like her brother "If you're going to tell me about how I apparently am having a threesome involving my brother, could you just either fuck off or talk to me directly." Minako said, pausing for a beat, only to see that the girls were smirking at her, she shouldn't have given any ground to these idiots.

 

"Okay then." The pretty girl said, she went down to her haunches and looked at Minako straight in the eyes. "You do not belong here. Go die already."

 

"Well, aren't you a treat," Minako said before she could stop herself, "An example of a textbook alpha bitch." She sneered at the pretty girl "Tell me: Does the thought of getting spit-roasted make you wet?"

 

"What?" The girl asked her face more than a bit red and not all of it was from the embarrassing question, it was likely that she was not all that used to her victims talking out of turn.

 

"I was just curious, you seemed to like the thought of it." Minako shrugged "You seem to take some joy in those rumours, I was just wondering. But if I'm wrong, then why are you so angry?" Minako had to admit, she wasn't much for sadism, but she took far too much joy in watching the girl's reactions, there was something ... satisfying about watching an Alpha bitch's face redden.

 

"Shut up!" She said, her calmer facade broke for a second. "Let's find someplace else to sit girls." She walked away, her face still red and her two friends walking behind her offering vague compliments or condolences.

 

"Nice going." Someone said, Minako turned and saw it was the blonde girl she saw on her first day and in-class every day. She sat next to Minako and the girl started to shrink into herself slightly, she was not good with people, that was already known, but without her brother to help pick up the conversation when she started to panic, but without him, she could panic really easily.

 

"Takamaki-san," Minako said, simply, "thanks, I try my best." though there was a bit of pride in her words, she did admit, that was one of the best outcomes of that conversation, though not the best, that was never going to happen.

 

"Nice to hear." Takamaki said, not sure how to "I take it you don't want to be here."

 

"What gave it away?" Minako said, regaining her bubbly aura, but it was coated with a bit of Arisato-family sarcasm. "Was it the Alpha Bitch trying to embarrass me or was it the tacky school gym outfit?"

 

"It looks like a combination of the two." Takamaki said, "Also, please just call me Ann. I'm not all that big on honorifics."

 

"Of course, Ann," Minako said, bringing her knees closer to herself, she wasn't all that good at socialising with people and making friends, Ann looked so fashionable and pretty, so Minako doubted she'd have anything in common with the (Foreign? Mixed Race? Possibly just hair dye and contact using?) girl. "Wait, haven't I seen you before?" Minako asked she was genuinely curious as to where the feeling of her face being familiar came from

 

"I've been on a few magazine covers." Ann said, dropping that bombshell like it was a pin, "Mostly fashion magazines" Ah, she was definitely fashionable, Minako remembers occasionally reading some of those magazines when she was bored out of her mind on certain days.

 

"That explains it..." Minako said, processing this revelation

 

"Never took you for the fashionable type."

 

"I'm not, I just occasionally read some of those if my guardian has them lying around and not much is happening," Minako said, waving her hands in front of her face as she explained, she silently wondered when her life turned into a third-rate high school anime, she did have the backstory for it. "Hey, what's the latest match?"

 

Ann looked at the hall and saw the two teams "It's the boys' team and the girls' team." Minkao looked over and saw both of the volleyball teams, one thing was obvious even at a glance, they looked like someone went around the teams and hit all of them in the face with a baseball bat, not just the face as well, some of the girls and boys seemed to be limping and there were clear arm injuries on both sides as well. The starters for the girl's team came up, a rather demure if pretty looking girl with long black hair that was tied up in a high ponytail, though there were some obvious bruises on her face as well which was worrying to both Ann and Minako.

 

Surprising Minako, Ann started loudly cheering on the girl's starter, causing the girl to look and promptly smile in the direction of the blonde girl and it also caused Minako to jump in surprise at the blonde girl's volume.

 

"GOOOOOOOO SHIHO!" Ann yelled and Minako was sure that her ears were ringing, though, despite that, she was glad that there at least some decent people in this school. The girl, 'Shiho' did actually seem really well talented at volleyball, not that Minako knew the first thing about the sport, a few minutes later it seemed that the boys' team was dominated, though that would be a gentle word to use, she couldn't really think of a better word, but she'd be glad to use it when she thought of one.

 

The next match was the boys' team (fresh from getting their egos bruised) against Kamoshida, some teachers and some of Kamoshida's old students (who did not look like they wanted to be there) though if Minako was, to be honest, it was mostly just Kamoshida with everyone else hanging back to allow 'Shida the ability of stroke his ego and what better way than to single handed dominate a bunch of tired (and injured) high school kids, most of whom look like they want to die or be cleansed of their suffering in some small regard. In short, it was something of a curb stomp

 

The only high point of the match was when Kamoshida did a beautiful 'spike' into the boys' side of the pitch, causing the ball to bounce and hit a rather plain looking blue-haired boy in the face, causing him to be knocked to the ground.

 

This caused the gym teacher to put on some faux-compassion and attempt to sound concerned, key word being 'attempt' "Are you okay?" He asked the kid groaned in return "Someone take him to the nurse's office." Minako actually felt bad for both the boy and everyone who had to put up with Kamoshida's bad acting.

 

"I'll take him to the nurse's office," Minako spoke up. Everyone looked at her with a raised eyebrow, but she'd be damned if she didn't take a legit reason to get out of the volleyball rally.

 

**13/04/2018 - 11:00 - Nurse's Office – Arisato Minako**

 

Minako had taken Mishima (that was apparently the blue-haired kid's name) to the nurse's office if she had to guess, Mishima had a concussion

 

The Nurse was currently looking at him, performing the most basic of checkups, after assessing what was wrong, she turned to Minako "You can go back to the rally now." the tone of her voice was soft, far softer than the tone used by most of the faculty. The nurse then paid her no mind and moved to give Mishima an ice-pack.

 

Minako looked at the boy in front of her, his face was a mishmash of bandages and bruises, even though she didn't play Volleyball, she had a good hunch that these weren't the kind of injuries one got from Volleyball, it looked like someone was abusing him. The nurse gave him an ice-pack and then excused herself, citing some reason that Minako didn't really care for. Back to the matter at hand, she knew that going at it directly was bound to result in a poor answer. So, time for sympathy "Are you okay?"

 

"Y-yeah, I'm fine." The boy said, looking at the ground "You should probably go back to the rally now, Kamoshida doesn't like it when students try to skip the rally." He sniffled slightly as he thought about something "Damn, screwed up again"

 

"What happened wasn't an accident, was it?" Minako asked the way that ball hit his face and the fake sympathy from Kamoshida made it almost impossible to believe that it was an accident, she briefly wondered if this was how conspiracy theorists felt when they were thinking about their latest crackpot theory.

 

"Of course, it was an accident, what else could it be-" The boy stopped, realising that his train of thought probably left him with no methods of backing up such an argument "What else could it be..."

 

"This will be a secret between the two of us." Minako began, she couldn't risk being ratted out here, but she was also curious, the fact that the boys' team seemed to have more injuries present and looked more like they wanted to die, there was something that was not right, much like with the rest of the school "Is Kamoshida abusing the Boys' team?"

 

This was responded with Mishima tensing up his shoulders as he seemed to be wondering what to say, "No, of course not, this is just normal for training." He said, laughing it off slightly, though the laugh was probably less convincing than Kamoshida's acting, though the tensing up of the shoulders gave her the answer she needed, it was a 'yes'.

 

**13/04/2018 - 11:30 - Locker Rooms – Sakamoto Ryuji**

 

In the boy's locker room stood three figures, the hunched over figure of an angry Ryuji, the figure of a mildly annoyed Minato and in front of the two of them, backed into a corner, was the figure of a member of the volleyball team.

 

The boy had short brown hair, styled into a bowl cut, though that was based off what Minato could see, though the majority of his face was covered in bandages, his eyes spoke of fear and the eyes seemed to dart around the room.

 

"Come on man, I swear I won't tell anyone that you 'fessed up." Ryuji pleaded with the bandaged teenager. 

 

"I already told you, Sakamoto, you're delusional this is normal for practice," the boy said, Minato rose a single eyebrow at that.

 

"That is 'normal for practice'. Forgive me if I doubt you on that one." Minato said the boy looked like he was hit in the face with a baseball bat and hit hard as well.

 

"Yeah, like Minato said, a few scratches, I could get, but you look like someone tried to kick your teeth in and just hit the rest of your face instead," Ryuji said

 

"Enough Sakamoto!" The teenager said, his eyes still darting around the room, as if wondering if a certain gym teacher was going to walk into the conversation "I know what you're doing, you're just trying to get Kamoshida in trouble for what happened to the track team."

 

"That's no-"

 

"Well, everyone knows that's not going to work, we all know who's really at fault, 'track traitor'." the boy ducked out between the two delinquents and ran out of the changing room.

 

Ryuji was wincing at being referred to by that horrible nickname, he felt his vision go red and felt the need to punch something, he settled on one of the nearby lockers, which got a small dent in it. Minato looked at him calmly.

 

"That was a bust." The calm boy said, looking at his companion with a lack of fear that was to be expected from most people. "I think we should leave." Minato guided Ryuji out of the room and Ryuji resisted the urge to kick someone's bag on the way out as a way of letting off some steam.

 

As they walked up the stairs to the second floor together, Ryuji thought about the fact that no one wanted to say anything if he told them that he wouldn't tell, they either told him, in no uncertain terms, to fuck off or they panicked and claimed that they had urgent appointments elsewhere. In terms of the injuries, the excuses ranged from it being normal for practice to them tripping up at a train station to his personal favourite, 'I was in a bit of scrap, these are not volleyball related' though the fact it came from one of the softest people in the volleyball team almost made that excuse a non-starter, Ryuji had to do everything in his power to avoid outright stating that the excuse was bullshit.

 

He knew that there were still two people he had to ask, there was Shiho, the starter on the girls' team and Mishima, who was currently in the nurse's office with Minako, so she would probably be able to get something out of him. So, he was left with Shiho who aside from being a starter on the girls' team, was also a close friend of Takamaki, so it was likely that he'd be able to find the two close together, at this point Minato had gone to find his sister.

 

**13/04/2018 - 12:30 - Shujin Academy Courtyard – Takamaki Ann**

 

Ann was sitting next to her friend, Shiho, who was still nervous and as usual, was doubting her own ability "You did great out there."

 

"I don't know, my form was off and the boys hit harder than the girls," Shiho mumbled, looking down at the ground.

 

"Please, you had them by the balls, start to finish," Ann said, looking at her friend, "Actually, how are you doing? Did you get a confidence boost out of that?"  If there was one thing that her friend needed, it was a confidence boost.

 

Shiho actually laughed at that, she meant like actual laughter out of joy and not out of nervousness and faking joy. It was almost enough to make Ann's spirits soar. "I guess so..." Shiho stopped laughing and turned to Ann "Can I ask you something?" she said, her voice was much more grave than before.

 

"Sure."

 

"Are you alright?" Ann's face was frozen, where was she going with this "I just heard that the transfer students were in your class, I know that most of the stories are probably exaggerated, but they haven't tried anything with you, have they?" Oh good, it wasn't going towards _that_ , she could deal with talking about the Arisato twins, but not talking about _that_ and her reasons for doing so.

 

"No, they haven't if they did I would put them in the emergency ward." Ann answered, "Actually, I talked with Minako-san, she seemed quite sarcastic, though she seemed to have a bit of a temper problem, though I wouldn't blame her given half of the rumours surrounding her and her brother. The worst she's done is verbally shredding Eiko-san earlier today," Anything that ruined her ego was considered a good thing to Ann, the girl was the source of most of the school's rumours, including the rumours that Ann was 'easy' due to her heritage "the both of them seem quiet though, not the sort of people who'd you think of as delinquents." Yep, not many thought of the quiet types as delinquents, typically they were loud kids with attitude problems.

 

"Hey, Suzui-san, Takamaki-chan!" A voice said, interrupting her valuable free time with Shiho, she looked over to see it was Ryuji, in all his bleached blond glory.

 

"Sakamoto," Ann said, they never really talked anymore, so it was a bit surprising that he was here, talking to her. "I haven't seen you in a while, what's up?"

 

"Nothing much, just have a few questions that I want to ask Suzui-san," Ryuji said, of course, he was going to ask about the whole Kamoshida business. Shiho actually jumped at the mention of her name, it was kinda cute.

 

"Me, sure what is it?" She said understandably nervous, it wasn't every day someone willing talked to Ryuji or was asked to talk.

 

"Sorry, can we talk alone," Ryuji said, referring specifically to Ann, Shiho was very nervous now and she was shifting around in her seat, trying to make herself smaller.

 

"Why? If you have to ask anything, I'm sure you can do it with an audience."

 

"No offence, but the last thing I need is more trouble," Ryuji said this was the high of his politeness.

 

"Trouble?" Ann said, actually a bit angry, "You know what, maybe we should be talking. I'll be right back Shiho." Without waiting for a reply, Ann dragged Ryuji away from her friend and looked him square in the eye. "Ryuji, I'm only going to say this once, so you better listen: Don't talk to Shiho again. Stop trying to mess with Kamoshida. Got it?"

 

"What do you me-" Ryuji began, only to be cut off

 

"I'm not stupid, you and I both know what exactly you're doing, do you have any idea how much trouble you could get Shiho into just by talking to her." By getting Shiho into trouble, that would then mean that Ann had to kill off another bit of her soul in order to please Kamoshida. "I know you're trying to bust Kamoshida, and for that, I thank you, but it's not going to work, so just quit it."

 

"Quit it? Ar-"

 

"Of course not!" Ann shouted at Ryuji, properly angry at the blond's method of evasion "But you trying to kick the hornet's nest only makes it worse for everyone else and even if you did get someone to come forward, what do you think would happen? The police come along and then leave with a signed autograph. Hell, do you think the principal or the student council president would listen? If they cared than something would be done by now." Ann let out a deep breath, before continuing "In short, just stop it Ryuji and stay away from Shiho, got it?"

 

Ann went back to Shiho, at least, that's what she intended to do, in actuality she decided to listen in on Ryuji since the guy had a tendency to think out loud. The transfer students were standing next to him, looking rather annoyed.

 

"How'd it go with Mishima?" Ryuji asked, sounding dejected

 

"It was fine until Kamoshida showed up." Minako filled in "He tried lying to me, but it was worse than Kamoshida's acting."

 

"When I broke down his lies, he said that it was pointless because everyone already knew." Minato supplied, "When Kamoshida showed up, he waved us off as just being concerned."

 

"Piece of shit does whatever the fuck he wants," Ryuji grumbled, probably kicking the ground. "Takamaki-chan said something to that effect." He sighed slightly as he started to think "I'd probably have to rally half the goddamn school to get anything to happen."

 

"Well, for all that it matters, you've got us on side," Minako said, her tone of voice was hopeful but a bit sad as well.

 

"Well thanks, I didn't think you'd tell me about Mishima."

 

"No problem, I let my curiosity get the better of me...."

 

Ann had enough Eavesdropping on the three, she walked back to Shiho.

 

She just hoped that when this blew up in their face, it wouldn't cause too much of a mess.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I figured that Minako would be the type who would run her mouth when she's angry, something which would get her into a lot of trouble.
> 
> I also tried messing around with POV changes, not my finest hour, but what have you.
> 
> Anyway, I am begging you to comment, please.


	6. The Calm Before

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another day at Shujin Academy, that is to say, neverending misery, most are sure that if they are in the Volleyball team, then their situation can't get any worse, but how wrong they can be sometimes. Many would rather stay in the wrong than see just how worse their situation can get.

**14/04/2018 - 7:40 - Shujin Academy - Arisato Minako**

 

Minako was nervous about a lot of things, her grades were one thing that made her super nervous, she got nervous when she was checking how much money she had left in the month's budget, all of these were very normal things to be worried about. She was worried about probation, she wanted this year to go smoothly and all, get Shujin academy on her resume and she might be able to go some places. She got worried about when her brother was acting so stoic when something bad happens, though she supposes that his calm does work well. These were normal things to be worried about.

 

In terms of what she was not worried about, would be the rumours, they were, after all, only rumours. Though that is not to say that she didn't care for them, she was morbidly curious about how Shujin's rumour mill would stretch the truth, replace words or flat out lie about her talk with Eiko, only the entrance of the resident class gossips would tell her.

_"I hear she threatened Eiko-Senpai"_

_"She invited her to the threesome"_

_"Really?"_

_"Yeah, I was there."_

Speak of the devil, she was surprised about how they were relatively tame, though she'd have to find the other girls to see just how far they stretched. She put away her manga and listened up as Kawakami walked into the room, looking just as tired as normal.

 

Minako briefly wondered how exactly someone got that tired and stayed that tired without being hospitalised, not like she would be able to talk to the teacher, most of the students kept their distance, the teachers looked like they were one step away from flat-out threatening her at any given moment.

 

**14/04/2018 - 10:00 - Shujin Academy - Suzui Shiho**

 

Shiho had few things on her mind, one of them was the volleyball team, Kamoshida was another thought (specifically, the way he seemed to take out his frustrations on her) the third thing on her mind was Ann, her best-friend, how those wonderful blue eyes seemed to be so bereft of any of the light that they used to have, a light which she rarely saw when talking to Ann, the girl was carrying some weight, if she was to keep her ear to the ground and listen, she would hear all sorts of horrible rumours about how Ann and Kamoshida are dating and getting it on behind the scenes, though those rumours couldn't be true ... right?

 

To be honest, Shiho never managed to work up the courage to talk to Ann about the rumours, she was afraid of what Ann might say, especially if she knew about her feelings as well.

 

Shiho looked at the clock again, just five more hours until the next instalment of _'The things I do for a scholarship - Volleyball edition'._

 

She then looked back at her notebook, nothing was recorded down, the words of Ms Chouno's lecture on the English language not registering at all, did not exactly help that this lecture was delivered in Japanese and that her bright pink neon dress seemed to draw more attention than the accented words coming out of her mouth.

 

In short, Shiho's situation was rather shit, though she was sure that it couldn't get worse.

 

**14/04/2018 - 12:30 - Shujin Academy - Suzui Shiho**

 

Shiho was enjoying lunch, well about as much as the average person in this school could enjoy lunch.

_"I hear, she's sleeping with Takamaki-san."_

_"She's totally a dyke."_

_"I know, right?"_

_"That's why she was flirting with Eiko-senpai?"_

Oh goody, the school gossips were talking, Shiho didn't really like listening into conversations of others, but with those girls, they had no concept of volume control.

 

Hearing the girls talk made Shiho sick slightly and she got out of the school cafeteria and made her way to the vending machines, deciding that an energy drink wouldn't go amiss in this situation. After all, it was bound to be a tiring day and some artificial energy would be welcome if only to help her survive the day.

 

As she passed the corner on the way to the vending machines, she bumped into someone knocking them onto the ground like it was one of those romance animes that Ann watched. She opened her eyes and realised that she knocked into Arisato Minato.

 

There was not a word in the Japanese Language to describe how quickly she shifted back from the supposed delinquent, he got up and picked up what he seemed to be carrying, which was a can of Coke, oddly enough.

 

"Sorry," he said, his voice was passive and sounds like he was done with life. "Hey, what's with that brace?"

 

"Oh nothing, nothing really!" Shiho said as she got up, in actuality, there was a large number of bruises under the brace and her leg felt like hell.

 

"I doubt you'd wear a brace for 'nothing'" Minato said, his voice in a slow drawl "though, Shiho-san, if you want to talk about, I'll listen." Though Shiho knew that this boy was most likely a delinquent or at the very least a boy who was capable of violence, she did feel some comfort from his words, it was possible that he was concerned for her.

 

**14/04/2018 - 15:45 - Aoyama-Itchome - Takamaki Ann**

 

Ann was very annoyed, for the entirety of the day, she heard nothing but rumours, the worse bit was the new rumours also involved her, saying that she was sleeping with Minako and Kamoshida or that she was hooking up with Minato or any other conjecture or flat out lie in the school.

 

Now that school was over for the day, Ann was ready to head home and enjoy the rest of her Thursday, and by 'enjoy', she meant to ignore the existence of Kamoshida and fantasise about the wasteland that was her love life not being so barren, especially after the, still on-going, agreement she has with Kamoshida. Though there was some annoyance, she was constantly hearing her phone vibrating form something, either texts or someone was calling her. She pulled her phone out of the pocket and she felt her mood worsen as she looked at the contact, 'Disgust Incarnate', or as he was known to the rest of the world, 'Kamoshida'. Twenty Texts and a few missed calls. She finally answered the phone after a few seconds of hesitation.

 

"Now you're finally taking my calls" The voice of Kamoshida spoke, he sounded annoyed and a bit tense, as always just the sound of his voice made her want to vomit.

 

"What do you want?" Ann spoke, her tone was very frosty and she admitted, this was not working for her facade of being his 'girlfriend' but she was beyond caring.

 

"That's not how we agreed you'd talk to me." Kamoshida said, though the term agreement would be a bit liberal, it was more like an order on how to talk to him "Are you still at school?"

 

"I left after a talk with Shiho, I noticed that she has a few extra bruises on her face." Ann realised that he might be preparing to raise his demands, again.

 

"No biggie, my hands slipped, I didn't really mean it. Really." Kamoshida said with such nonchalance that almost made her want to punch the man in the face. "anyway, I wanted to ask you to come over to the P.E. office but since your own your way home, do you think you could instead just stop by my place."

 

"This again?" Ann said, she was getting angry, he had made this request before, several times, each time he was denied, but he kept asking. "How many times do I have to say it 'I don't feel comfortable with it.'" What followed was the tale-tell sound of Kamoshida blocking the mic on his phone as he no-doubt muttered to himself about his next move.

 

"Well isn't that a shame," He said, his voice dripping with fake-sympathy and faux-sorrow in equal measure "Suzui-san was doing so well, but it seems that I'm going to have to get a new starter, her performance just isn't cutting it anymore."

 

"What!?" Ann shouted, pulling a Minako "You said that it was just going to be a few dates and that was it."

 

"Wellllll," He said, drawing out the word as he seemed to be thinking of something "Considering the stress that I've been under getting my beloved team into shape for the nationals. I've decided that our agreement needed a few new amendments to it. Hope you don't mind." Ann felt her stomach twist even more and she felt the need to puke at the sheer thought of it. "Anyway, let me know when you're stopping by." This was spoken with the insufferable tone of a man who he thinks has someone backed into a corner.

 

Then there was the dial tone as he hung up, Ann felt angry, used, useless and above all, sad, she was a failure of a friend and because of her, Shiho's not going to be able to fulfil her dream. Before she knew it, she felt tears dropping off her face and she decided that the best idea was to drop to her knees and maybe curl up in a ball, given the circumstances that she was given.

 

"Ann?" She heard a voice call, she looked around and saw the concerned face of Minako as well as the passive face of Minato, who looked slightly concerned as well. "I know this is a stupid question, but are you okay?"

 

"How much did you hear?" Ann asked if she could avoid this conversation, she could

 

"Something about dates and you shouting," Minato said, his voice bored and his tone was clinical. "Don't want to talk about it?" he said, sparing a second to glance around the station, where a few people were looking at them. What a strange combination they made.

 

She looked at both the twins more closely, despite the passive attitude of Minato, she guessed that there was some genuine concern hidden in those grey eyes, he just stood there, left hand in his pocket and right holding onto the strap of his bag. Minako looked very concerned but looked more uncomfortable, her right hand was held up to Ann while the left was holding onto the strap of her bag, she seemed to be shifting her weight from foot to foot slightly.

 

"Sure," Ann said, she knew that Minako would probably listen and the fact that Minato hanged around with Ryuji probably meant that he was a good enough person. "Just not here."

 

**14/04/2018 - 16:10 - Rocket Diner - Takamaki Ann**

 

Inside the small, Western-style diner, the three of them took a seat on one of the booths, with her back to the window sat Ann, on the other side of the table sat the Arisato Twins, both of whom were ready to listen intently. Ann just ordered a glass of water for two reasons, one was because she wanted something to grip in order to let out some of her anger and the other was that she needed something to drink because talking to or about Kamoshida made her mouth feel dirty.

 

"I'm sorry about overhearing your call, I didn't mean to eavesdrop," Minako said, looking a bit apologetic, she was shifting uncomfortably,

 

"It's fine, but you can probably guess who I was speaking to, if anything, I wouldn't be surprised if you already knew," Ann said, brushing Minako's apology under the rug. "I know you're both speaking with Ryuji-kun, so I can assume that he told you about the rumours. Well, unlike most of the crap that gets through the rumour mill, the rumours about the volleyball team is true." She took a small sip of her water

 

"So he is abusing the volleyball teams," Minato said, he seemed to be taking up the famous Gendo pose as he processed the new piece of information "'Normal for practice' indeed," he muttered

 

"Getting back on topic, there was nothing that we could do about it." Ann sighed, it was time to talk about disgust made manifest "At least, that's what I thought, I have this friend, her name is Shiho."

 

"The girl who dominated the boys at the rally," Minako said she knew the girl by name because of Ann's loud shouting yesterday, her ears were still ringing a little.

 

"Dominated is putting it lightly," Ann said she found it in herself to smile, talking about Shiho almost always made her smile and she could never figure out why. "When I first saw the bruises on her leg, I went and talked to Kamoshida about it," and like that, her smile and her good mood went "There we managed to strike a deal: I would go out with him and he would go easy on Shiho." Minato and Minako both gave her the flattest possible look they could muster "It seemed like a good idea at the time. Shiho got to be happy and Kamoshida got the 'exotic girlfriend'," She put up air quotes around the words "that he always wanted." She sighed as she thought about it, "It made my rep go to shit, but hell, my rep was never that good, to begin with, so I wasn't loosing much. I should have known that this deal was too good to be true, at first it was a few dates but after the new year hit, he's been demanding more, at first it was my phone number so that he could call me for dates, then it was always accepting rides to the school with him, now it is well..." she looked at her glass of water and really wished it was vodka or something similar, anything to give her the courage to face the gazes of the two teenagers.

 

"Everyone thinks you're both having sex," Minato said with all the grace of a swan on fire and all the subtly of a thermonuclear first strike.

 

"Yes, because of the rumours, everyone thinks that we're getting it on. Unfortunately, he's now got the idea into his head," Ann took a drink, cleansing her mouth of the words that she just said, "The call he just made was him asking me to come to my place, you know what that means, correct?" Both the twins nodded "He told me that he would take Shiho of the team if I didn't sleep with him, a part of me wants to go just to protect her, but I don't want to sleep with that disgusting man. I guess... I don't really know what to do." Ann said, looking down at the now empty glass of water.

 

"Don't go," Minako said, "you don't know if he is even going to keep his end of the bargain." She added. Minato remained passive but Ann couldn't help but wonder why he looked both concerned and conflicted.

 

"You're right, there's no guarantee that he won't keep pushing for more and more or if he even will keep Shiho on the team. Sex was never part of our agreement, if he wants it so bad, I'm sure that his old darling, a sweaty gym sock, will still love him." She then realised exactly what she said and almost laughed slightly "Oh, you have no idea how much I love being able to say something like that." Minako was grinning like an idiot upon hearing that and Minato was giving what was probably his version of a smile, which was a half grin. "I'm surprised that you two are the ones that I talk to about this."

 

"We haven't been corrupted by Shujin's madness yet." Minato provided, getting a laugh out of both Minako and Ann.

 

"I know that most of what they say about you is crap, but is it true that you're bad people?" Ann asked though her tone was somewhat jokey.

 

"We're bad to the bone," Minako said, her tone was faux-grave, her face was clearly not all that serious, she was still grinning like an idiot.

 

Ann giggled despite herself, the brunette knew how to break an atmosphere, "Thanks for hanging out." She called as the two twins left

 

"No problem," Minato called back as he and his sister left.

 

Ann sighed to herself, she wasn't entirely sure what to do about the Kamoshida situation, but she had a better idea now. She pulled out her phone and texted Kamoshida.

 

 **Ann** _:_ Go fuck a Gym Sock.

 

Satisfied, she got up out of her seat and made her way home, trying to forget about the fact that she still had homework.

**14/04/2018 - 17:25 - Shujin Academy - Suzui Shiho**

 

Shiho was wondering what was wrong with Kamoshida this afternoon, he was tenser than usual and acted more aggressively than before, his hands came closer to some of the girls and he hit harder and more frequently over the session, worst yet, even though Shiho tried to perform harder out of fear of getting hit, she was called out to go to the P.E. Office.

 

Which is why she's currently trying to gather her courage as she is standing in front of the door, she knew that if she refused Kamoshida's summons he'd beat her harder next session if she was lucky, if she was unlucky she'd get beat to a pulp and then thrown out of the Volleyball Club. taking a deep breath, she knocked her knuckles on the door to the P.E. Office.

 

"The door is open." Came the voice of Kamoshida from behind the door "Please lock the door when you come in." he added as Shiho opened the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter comes the suicide of Shiho, oh that's going to be fun.


	7. The Storm - Redux

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes, the actions of one night can have lasting repercussions, a Coach abusing his power when he should have not, a Girl not complying when she could have. Either way, it can affect people heavily in the long run.

**15/04/2018 - 7:32 - Shujin Academy Entrance - Arisato Minako**

 

Minako had to admit, the rumours about her being a gang were annoying as all hell, the fact that she walked into school with Ryuji and her brother like they were in Reservoir Dogs probably didn't help the situation, though there was little chance of the rumour dying off, due to the fact that the three of them were good friends and she didn't care for the rumours enough to be bothered by them, unless, of course, it was the threesome rumour, but those had died down, a few glares had ensured that.

 

Her thoughts drifted towards the events of yesterday, did her advice to Ann help her, or would it make the situation worse, she would have to talk to Ann to find out. Though one thing which concerned her further was Shiho, she looked even worse than usual, her appearance seemed even more gloomy and she generally seemed more down, if Minako was sure of anything, she was sure that this might have been an indirect result of her advice to Ann, either Shiho was kicked from the team, or something worse. Either way, she should be able to find out at lunch.

**15/04/2018 - 9:00 - Shujin Academy - Arisato Minako**

 

There was something about Ushimaru that annoyed Minako, if she was to think about it, she would probably come to the conclusion of that it was a trifecta of points: Firstly, he was self-righteous, believing his own viewpoint to be the only true view. Secondly, his lectures tended to be long and waffly, it was rather hard to pick out the useful information over the cavalcade of poor metaphors and long-winded explanations. Thirdly, there was the fact that he seemed to feel the need to single out her and her brother in his class, due to their status as criminals and therefore, the fact that they are on his shitlist.

 

Though an annoying addition to the third point was the fact that he was a Social Science teacher and thus had an excuse to comment on criminals and single them out. Such a shame really, Social Science was a fascinating subject, when taught correctly, he did not teach it correctly.

 

"Arisato Minako!" He shouted, snapping the brunette out of her thoughts, "What are the three main branches of the Japanese Government?"

 

"Judiciary, Legislative and Executive, much like most governments, sir." She answered smoothly, adding the last bit on as an afterthought. A small habit of hers was to read the textbook in advance in order to get some good notes ready on the subjects that she struggled more in.

 

"Correct. The Supreme Court is Judiciary, the National Diet is Legislative and the Cabinet is Executive." Ushimaru said, his voice in a low monotone, she wondered exactly how someone might not have got that question wrong. Minako was still taking down some notes to make sure that she got this down "Each branch has a series of checks and balances that makes sure that each can be kept in check and not become unstoppable."

 

She was still writing down notes, though as her mind started to wander as Ushimaru's lecture, Her gaze drifted to the windows, she looked outside and was suddenly glad that she was inside this room, if only because of the weather conditions, in this case, there were plenty of dark clouds, which hinted that there would be rain later today, if not soon. Her gaze drifted back to her teacher as words continued to drift out of his mouth, it wasn't really a worry to record down all the important parts of his waffly lecture, considering that Minato had her covered due to the fact that he had elevated note making to an art-form, so much so that he could've probably taken a part-time job as a tutor, where it not for the record. She then wondered about Shiho, she thought about how exactly, she'd open that line of inquiry based on what's caused her to be so down.

 

Suddenly, a student got up from his seat, drawing the undivided attention of everyone in the class. "What's that?" He said, sounding confused.

 

"Oda-san, sit do-" Ushimaru began but was cut off

 

"Oh my God, she's going to jump!" A girl said, standing up from her chair.

 

Minako followed her gaze and knew that her face had gone pale, standing on the roof, dangerously close to the edge, was Suzui Shiho. Some students rushed out of their seats, either to get to the window and some seemed to be leaving the room entirely, Minako herself got out of her chair and ran towards, the roof disregarding her teacher's attempts at restoring order to the class.

 

If there was one thing she wanted to do, it was to get Shiho to not try to take her own life.

**15/04/2018 - 9:15 - Shujin Academy - Arisato Minato**

 

He knew that he shouldn't have stuck his nose into the matter of Ann and Kamoshida or at the very least encouraged caution on the part of the blonde. But instead this situation just got worse, he knew that Minako was running to get to the roof, but on the other hand, he was running to the courtyard, pulling out his phone along the way. There were very little words that described his panic in this situation, sure teenagers killing themselves were normal in Japan, but those ones usually didn't have much talent, but, Shiho, she had talent galore, which would mean that the field of causes for this attempt would be significantly narrowed, unfortunately, it mostly has to do with Volleyball and, by extension, Kamoshida.

**15/04/2018 - 9:19 - Shujin Academy - Arisato Minako**

 

Minako arrived at the roof, it was raining and standing in front of her, back turned, was the girl, Suzui Shiho.

 

"Shiho!" Minako shouted, wincing at her own volume "Don't jump." She added

 

The dark-haired girl looked at her, "I'm going to jump, don't you try to stop me." Minako took a single, subtle step closer as she decided her next reaction, she wasn't really the sort of person who had to say what she was thinking through.

 

"Just tell me what's wrong and I'm sure I can help," Minako said, silently cursing herself for picking the most cliche line she could think of. She took another step forward

 

"You couldn't know what's wrong!" Shiho shouted back, by this point Minako was sure that there was some confusion in the courtyard. Shiho was looking nervous, she clearly didn't want to tell anyone what was wrong, an admirable, if unhelpful position. She took another step and opened her mouth.

 

"Which is why I'm asking you to tell me." Minako calmly explained, doing one of the best impression of her brother she could. "Tell me and I'm sure I- no, we will be able to help you." She added, she needed to remind Shiho that she was here to help.

 

"Why should I?" Shiho asked

 

"Trust me Shiho, I've had a brush with death before, want to know what I felt when that happened?" Minako said "It was regret, regret about all the things that I wanted to do and who I wanted to meet. So, I'm asking you, please don't jump." She took another step, getting closer to Shiho, she needed to be within dashing distance at least.

 

"Why should I? My life is over, I lost the only thing in this school I can care for and Kamoshida ..." Shiho went quietly with the mention of Kamoshida, Minako took a step closer.

 

"We can deal with Kamoshida together, bring him to justice together," Minako reassured Shiho, though she knew it was hard, she'd need more than one confession against Kamoshida, she took a step closer. "I just need you to step away from the ledge." She took another step, getting daringly close.

 

"Do you want to know what Kamoshida did to me?" Shiho said she was visibly tearing up. Minako knew that the girl got more than just being normally beaten. Minako nodded as she took another step closer, "Well, he beat me, he groped me, he raped me..." She said, her voice was quiet and it was clear that she was ashamed.

 

"We can still help you," Minako said, she knew that this was still what she could do, she wasn't sure how she could help but stopping her from jumping would be a step in the right direction. "Just give me the chance." She held out her right hand to Shiho who looked indecisive. "Or do you want to bring your parents and your friends further heartache and give Kamoshida what he wants." A guilt trip tactic, it left her with a bad taste in her mouth, but it would be effective. Shiho seemed to comply and took Minako's hand and stepped away from the edge.

 

That was one problem solved, though it would most likely cause a metaphoric storm of other problems.

 

"Congrats Sis." Minato said, looking out of breath as he got to the roof, Ann came up behind him, "I didn't think you'd be able to do something like that." he added, finally regaining his breath.

 

"Should we leave Ann and Shiho alone?" Minako asked, looking at the two girls, it would probably be for the best.

 

"You go home with Ann and Shiho and inform me via text if anything happens. I'll take notes for you." Minato said.

 

This may not have been what they were supposed to do, but it would seriously help their situation. That was what they were sure of, before both their phones vibrated.

 

 **Ryuji:** Mishima's running.

 **Ryuji:** Heading for the locker room.

 

Both the twins looked at each other.

 

 **Min:** OMW

 **Ko:** Helping Ann  & Shiho

**15/04/2018 - 9:25 - Locker Room - Arisato Minato**

 

Mishima had been cornered by Ryuji and Minato, he may have been a member of the Volleyball team, but he had nothing on Ryuji who ran like a blue hedgehog and Minato who was smart enough to think on his feet in order to outdo Mishima's attempt at losing them.

 

They had Mishima backed into a corner, in an event that was eerily similar to the events just a couple of days ago. Though the difference was that Ryuji was already pissed off and had Mishima's left wrist in his grip already to keep the boy from running away. Minato was impressed by Ryuji's intelligence.

 

"Why did you follow me?" Mishima asked, feigning ignorance.

 

"Shiho was about to kill herself and you ran away, if you know something, spill it!" Ryuji said, tightening his grip on Mishima's left wrist, which was hidden under a brace.

 

"Let go of my arm," Mishima asked, his face was contorted from pain. Minato nodded at Ryuji who released the boy's wrist.

 

"Okay now, we've something for you, you should do something for us: spill everything you know," Minato said, looking Mishima in the eye. "What happens here stays between us."

 

"Suzui-san was called out by Kamoshida," Mishima said, looking down, Ryuji paled at the words, he knew what they meant. "Practice was worse than usual as well. Kamoshida made us run extra laps, ran us more ragged, threw more spikes at people's faces. Normally when he's in a bad mood, he'd just call whoever did the worst to his office and beat them." He shuddered at the thought "But yesterday, he called out Suzui-san despite the fact that she didn't do anything wrong." He also seemed to remember something else "I don't know why, but he seemed to be really pissed off and a bit tense yesterday, spent more time on the phone as well." Minato's face darkened, whatever Ann had told Kamoshida had really pissed him off.

 

"Don't tell me.." Ryuji began, coming to a conclusion, Mishima avoided looking him in the eye, the dead air between them told everything, revealing their worst fears.

 

Ryuji's face turned redder and redder from anger, he turned around and almost begin to run, only to be stopped by Minato grabbing his wrist.

 

"Let go of me!" Ryuji shouted into Minato's passive face.

 

"Calm yourself Ryuji, we both know what he did," Minato said calmly despite the fact that he had a very angry delinquent in front of him which is what many would consider being a formidable force. "However, we currently hold all the cards, let's not give Kamoshida what he wants and act rashly." He then turned his head to Mishima, "And you, don't say a word about this if anyone asks, you went to the bathroom. Understood." He ordered, satisfied when Mishima nodded "Good, you can leave." He turned his attention back to Ryuji, "Feeling better?"

 

"Not really..." The blond muttered, he was still pissed off, though his anger was dwindling, he did see the wisdom in Minato's words. "Are we really not going to do anything?"

 

"I didn't say anything about that, I suggest that we be patient, with that, we can stop Kamoshida." He said, "We have two confessions, but we need a confession that can't be dismissed as students slandering their teacher."

 

Ryuji nodded, once again seeing wisdom "I got it, I guess we're playing to win here." Minato nodded and then released Ryuji's arm "You have a really good grip, you know that?"

 

"Must be from all the knife fights I've been in." Minato joked, while his face was serious, there was clearly a sarcastic tone to his voice. "Come on, if we're lucky, school will be closed for today and we can get some noodles."

 

**15/04/2018 - 19:30 - Cafe Leblanc - Arisato Minato**

 

Borth the twins had cleared up some books off the work desk and set about putting together their case, using a ring binder and some file pages.

 

"Okay, from what we know so far..." Minako began, "Kamoshida had raped Shiho and beat her as well, correct." Minato nodded, Minkao felt dirty talking about the man "Mishima ran and informed you that Kamoshida beats the entirety of the volleyball team."

 

"We already knew, we just now have a confession."

 

"Just a dodgy confession, Minato and Kamoshida have apparently been at odds this year. Ann made a deal to be Kamoshida's girlfriend in order to protect Shiho. Kamoshida himself wanted to have sex with Ann as well, correct?" Another nod. "In short, if we get some confessions and possibly a reputable source to report these, we may be able to get rid of Kamoshida." Both the twins looked at each other, satisfied with their work,

 

"Think we might need to get a cork board and some red string for this?" Minato asked jokingly, his humour cutting through the atmosphere like a knife.

 

"No, but I think I'm going to need to go to the bathhouse to wash away the dirt from school." Minato couldn't blame her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I redid this chapter, partially because of the fact that I was unsatisfied with it and partially because of the fact that I figured that some of the characters would act differently. Though, it is still uncomfortable writing this chapter, though less uncomfortable due to the fact that I didn't have to write Kamoshida.
> 
> As always, I am begging you wonderful people to comment, please.
> 
> 12/02/2018 EDIT: "minted that there might be rain" changed to hinted


	8. The Day After

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Twins try to investigate Kamoshida and protect their friends, but that does raise a very important question: How does one bring to justice one who seems to have been committing that crime for years?
> 
> Either way, they are going to find a way, if only just to prove that it can be done.

**16/04/2018 - 5:25 - Ann's House - Takamaki Ann**

 

When Ann woke up, the first thing she heard was her phone's beeping sound. She picked up the infernal device when she saw who the text was from, Ryuji, she had given him her phone number earlier on in the year, when they were still on speaking terms.

 

 **Ryuji:** Hey Ann

 **Ryuji:** Ann

 **Ryuji:** A N N

 

Ann looked at it with slight annoyance and typed in her response.

**Ann:** It's five in the morning the hell do you want.

 **Ryuji:** Needed to text you, hope you don't mind, I'm adding the Arisatos to the chat.

 

 **[Min]** has been added to **[Kamoshida Investigation Chat]**

 **[Ko]** has been added to **[Kamoshida Investigation Chat]**

 

 **Ko:** 'sup

 **Ko:** So we're kinda planning an investigation of Kamoshida

but I'm worried, so can you go look after Shiho for today.

 **Min:** Don't worry, I take good notes, you'll be perfectly caught up

 

Ann was surprised at the efficiency of this, if she didn't know any better, she'd say that they planned this out. Her fingers swiftly moved across the phone's keyboard

 

 **Ann:** you planned this out

 **Ko:** Yep

 **Min:** Yeah

 **Ko:** Remember, we have no lives outside of school!

 **Ann:** Do you mind if Shiho's added?

 **Ryuji:** np

 

 **[Shizu]** has been added **[Kamoshida Investigation Chat]**

 

 **Shizu:** Why am I being added to this group chat?

 **Ko:** We're investigating 'Shida and need you to stay home in case he tries something. I asked Ann to stay with you for today.

 

Minako was surprisingly quick on the keyboard, she probably has predictive text on

 

 **Min:** Hope you don't mind

 **Shizu:** Not at all.

 **Ko:** Are we clear on what to do today?

 **Ryuji:** What am I supposed to do?

 **Min:** Be pretty

 

Ann stopped for a second and resisted the urge to tell Minato that his gay was showing.

 

 **Ann:** Moving on, know what to do.

 **Shizu:** Know what to do.

 **Min:** good, you may go about your lives now.

 

Ann wondered what the hell was up with her new friends, they were pretty weird, which was one way to put it, crazy was another way she could put it.

 

She sighed and went to her wardrobe to pick up some casual clothes.

 

**16/04/2018 - 5:45 - Cafe Leblanc - Sakura Sojiro**

 

If there was one thing which confused the hell out of Sojiro, it would be the twins that he had taken in, they looked alright, after the 13th, they didn't seem to be miserable, when they were asked, they simply said that they had made some friends.

 

He had given the two some curry this morning, as usual, they enjoyed the curry and it clearly did lift their spirits, a thing that made early mornings more bearable. Both of the twins had a slight smirk on their face, though it was clear that they were suffering from something or that there was something on their mind.

 

"Hey, kid, is there anything wrong at school?" Sojiro asked the two twins looked at each other with a look that clearly said that they were hiding something. "I want you two, to be honest with me."

 

"Well, there's a girl at our school who tried to commit suicide." Minako began, putting her fork down "I managed to talk her out of it," She continued "Minato's helping, so it's a bit mentally challenging." That was something, if it was true, though the two didn't seem to be lying, most people usually didn't tell a lie with such confidence.

 

"What exactly is it you're trying to do?"

 

"I hope you don't mind, but I think that it would be preferable if we keep that one to ourselves," Minato said, taking over from his sister who was nervously laughing. He then went back to eating the curry along with his sister.

 

"Thanks for the food." Both of them said at the same time when they finished, the two of them were probably stressed out from what they mentioned, provided that it was true.

 

**16/04/2018 - 7:12 - Tokyo Subway - Arisato Minako**

 

"Hey Minato" Minako began, looking at her brother with curious eyes. "How do you think the rumour mill will interpret yesterday?" She asked, while there was, as previously mentioned, curiosity in her eyes, there was also a hint of mischief, like usual for her, she was having far too much fun with that.

 

Minako pulled out her phone, when it didn't look like her brother would answer her, possibly due to the fact that she broke the sacred rule of public transport, 'don't talk, especially during the morning', either way, she had time to kill and she needed to keep on top of how everything was going.

 

 **Ko:** Hey Ann, at Shiho's place yet?

 **Ann:** Yes. Why do you ask

 **Ko:** Bored and on the train, why do you think?

 **Ann:** because you were worried...

 **Ko:** That too.

 

"The Train is now approaching Aoyama-Itchome Station. The Train is now approaching Aoyama-Itchome Station. Doors will be opening on the right side." The in-train announcement said Minako looked down at her phone.

 

 **Ko:** wait trains stopping, cya

 

She put her phone into her blazer pocket and sighed, she could almost hear Ushimaru lecturing her for skipping half a day of school.

 

**16/04/2018 - 7:40 - Shujin Academy - Arisato Minako**

 

When Minako walked into the room, what she expected to hear was the average daily chatter of students as they chattered about their life or what was going on or the next insufferable rumour, however, when she and her brother walked in, they were met with an uncomfortable silence. Hell, even the class gossips had nothing to say, as gratifying as that was.

 

The only sound as they stepped into the room was the sound of their footsteps as they made their way to their chairs. The fact that anyone had yet to say a word was starting to creep her out, at this point, she would welcome some asinine rumour about how she was in a gang or involved in human trafficking.

 

As they sat down noise suddenly returned to the classroom, though most people were even more cautious to look at them, that's when they heard it

_"I hear she stopped Suzui-san from killing herself"_

_"Her? No way."_

_"But she did!"_

_"Why'd she do it though?"_

_"Maybe she's actually nice."_

_"I think she's got a soft spot for girls."_

Ah, rumours how she missed those, the constant asinine chatter of her classmates made it easier for her to think, oddly enough. They provided some nice white noise when she stopped really paying attention to them to flush out other distractions.

 

Kawakami walked into the room and for the first time since arriving at the school, a teacher looked like they weren't disgusted with the twins' very existence. The woman actually had something which could resemble a smile on her face, though it probably didn't show given how eternally tired this woman seemed to be. Though this would be a step in the right direction.

**16/04/2018 - 9:20 - Shujin Academy - Arisato Minato**

 

if Minato had one thought at this moment, it would be that Mishima looked absolutely terrified to be in the same room as him, the boy looked over his shoulder roughly every 10.5 seconds and the look was always in the direction of Minato.

 

Though that was his one thought as he was trying to ignore just how pissed off Ushimaru was when he looked at Minako, yeah turns out 'A student almost jumped off the school' was not a good enough excuse to exit his class, though it could just be Ushimaru's standard hatred of criminals.

 

Either way, he started off the class by, in his slow, plodding way, recapping what was learned yesterday, how each branch had a series of checks and balances in place in order to make sure that no one branch of government becomes unstoppable, then he led this into an examination of the justice system, Minato couldn't tell if this was Ushimaru's standard teaching style, or if he was commenting on the new transfer students. This was going to be a long class...

 

**16/04/2018 - 12:00 - Shujin Academy - Arisato Minako**

 

When lunchtime hit, the gang, consisting of Ryuji, Minato and herself all gathered together on the roof to plot out their next move. Minako briefly realised that she was accepting the idea that they were, in fact, a gang, she shook her head to get rid of the idea and then focus back on the topic at hand.

 

"So .... any ideas?" Ryuji asked, fiddling with the cuff of his blazer, he was clearly out of his depth, "We know that Kamoshida beats the volleyball team, but we're going to need to find out something else that not even he can ignore."

 

"That's the problem though," Minako said, "We need to get something that doesn't reveal or intentions to him, but something that not even Phoenix Wright could ignore. But what could we use?" She put her hand to her chin, in one the many universal versions of the 'thinker' pose.

 

"Student testimonies..." Minato mumbled, considering ideas "No, too risky if word gets out, he'd know, plus they probably won't be so easily kowtowed as Mishima. Recordings... no, too risky, if it was possible a student would have already done it."

 

"Teachers... would need to find one that doesn't hate our very existence." Minako said, before snapping her fingers "We just need to find a teacher, they would be able to question students with impunity, they could also be seen as a reputable source."

 

"However, we need to get proof that not even they could ignore." Minato shot back, he didn't hate the idea, per-say, it was actually a good idea, it's just that he didn't like only having one idea.

 

"Mishima's bruises and testimony?" Minako asked, "No, too risky, Mishima doesn't trust us nearly enough to allow that." She mulled over several options over in her head "I'd say the principal, however..."

 

"He doesn't give a shit, as long as it doesn't damage the school's rep, Kamoshida could fucking murder someone and he'd help dispose of the body," Ryuji added, in his own blunt way, "The Student Council Prez doesn't care either."

 

"Hold up," Minato said, stopping Ryuji, "I think I have an idea, while it would be hard for any of us to get a teacher to trust us, they'd trust the Student Council President." He muttered

 

"Though aren't they just basically a puppet for the principal?" Minako proposed it seemed like a fair enough assumption, a teacher wouldn't want a student to have more power than them in the running of the school.

 

"However," Minato said, beginning his counter-argument, "The Student Council President, a girl named Nijima Makoto, is a straight A-student and generally regarded as one of those 'goody-two-shoes' types." Minato looked up "In other words, the perfect vehicle for our investigation, she's trustworthy, not the sort to kick the hornet's nest for no reason, smart, able to think things through and, most importantly, I doubt she's satisfied with the state of the school." Minato rattled off like he was resiting from a list of her personal qualities.

 

"Though all that information is second hand." Minako countered "We need to confirm it ourselves if we were to make any decision on it."

 

"I agree, I was simply backing up my points with what I heard." He looked at his phone, "Lunchtimes almost up, can't believe that this brainstorming section only really yielded two results that we can work with."

 

"Thanks for putting up with our bullshit, Ryuji," Minako said as she wrote down the two ideas on a blank piece of file paper.

 

"No problem," Ryuji said, he had to admit, he really just wanted to punch Kamoshida in the face, but he remembers just how well that worked out for him last time. Minako pulled out a ring binder and put the file paper into the binder. "Hey what's that file for anyway?"

 

"It's our Kamoshida Investigation File," Minako said, look rather proud of herself, Minato looked just slightly passive though mostly like he wanted to hurry back to class. Both the twins left the rooftop, leaving Ryuji alone, how stood up from the old school chair and stretched before going back down to his classroom.

 

**16/04/2018 - 13:00 - Shiho's House - Takamaki Ann**

 

If there was one thing that Ann was surprised by, it was the fact that Shiho's parents didn't even raise an eyebrow at the fact that their daughter was staying at home on a school day and that they didn't even question why some foreign girl was staying with their daughter during that day either.

 

Though that was far from the most surprising thing that Ann found out today, the next surprising thing was Shiho's room.

 

A dull white paint covered the walls, though that was hard to tell as most of the wall was covered by a surprisingly expansive wardrobe and several posters of volleyball teams and other sports teams, though these covered the posters for some old video games and anime that Shiho used to play/watch back when she was still in middle school. The floor was just basic hardwood, with a rather old looking carpet in the middle, the carpet's original colour was hard to figure out as at this point it was a black and stunk of air freshener and fabric cleaner. The only pieces of furniture worth pointing out in Shiho's room were her bed, western-styled with sky blue covers. A kotatsu (because no room in a Japanese house is complete without one) and an old CRT TV and PS2, with several games still visible, though, when Ann entered the room there was a fine coating of dust over all the games and the TV looked like it hadn't been used in ages.

 

Though, it turned out that Shiho had quite a good collection of PS Vita games, as indicated by the fact that she hid those games in her wardrobe and it took up almost an eighth of the space in the wardrobe.

 

In terms of what they were wearing, Ann was wearing her lavender dress shirt, a white skirt and black nylons with red converse, this was complete with a red and white letterman jacket, she had a collection of those jackets.

 

In terms of what Shiho was wearing, it was a pair of light blue jeans and a white polo shirt, (she claimed that it was laundry day, not that Ann cared, Shiho looked good no matter what she wore).

 

If Ann had one massive complaint, it was that being in the same room as Shiho for so long made her very nervous, she did have some feelings for the black haired girl, not that she'd actually tell Shiho this, especially considering recent events. Though for some reason, Shiho seemed to be just as nervous, not that it made it better, any case of contact with the girl made Ann blush lightly.

 

In terms of what they were currently doing, it was simple, they were lying there on Shiho's bed (the thought made Ann blush) and playing some random mystery game on her Vita, not that Ann cared about the game, she was too busy trying not to do her best impression of a tomato. In terms of the game, Shiho was stuck on the same section for the better part of an hour now and was getting progressively more and more frustrated with each subsequent game over screen,

 

Ann was glad to see that Shiho wasn't lingering on the thoughts of what happened a few days ago, though it filled Ann with a lot of guilt as she figured that one of the reasons for this was because of what she said to Kamoshida over the phone, though she didn't regret what she did, she just hated the outcome of it. She shook her head to rid herself of these thoughts, they really wouldn't do her much good.

 

"Why is this game so hard?" Shiho moaned, it seemed like she had got another game over screen.

 

"Because its a sequel," Ann said, she knew that much due to the fact that she bought it as a gift for Shiho earlier on in the year "Sequels are usually harder than the first game, y'know except for when it's easier."

 

"Can I have easier?" Shiho asked, in a moment of wit that made Ann laugh.

 

"No." She said as she finished laughing "However, I do have an alternative. I could look up the walkthrough on my phone." Ann offered, as adorable as it was to see Shiho fail at a video game for the better part of an hour, she preferred to see Shiho smile. Shiho nodded and Ann made her way through the in-game wikis annoyed at how they were mostly in English, not that she couldn't read English, it was just that it was annoying translating between English and Japanese at the best of times, that and the English on these sites had a habit of being really hard to read.

 

**16/04/2018 - 16:30 - Shiho's House - Takamaki Ann**

 

Ann heard the sound of someone knocking at the door. "Who is it?" Ann asked she was slightly on edge considering who it could be. Kamoshida was the sort of person who would actually be inclined to do something like that.

 

"It's Minato and Minako," Minako said, her tone was jubilant as always. "Please let us in, its cold and there's wolves after me." Ann let her in and tried not to groan at the Simpsons reference that the girl just made. The two twins entered and took off their shoes, as was proper.

 

"Was that seriously the best you could do?" Ann asked, looking at Minako "A Simpsons reference, really?" she demanded.

 

"I couldn't think of any jokes," Minako answered, looking somewhat ashamed, "anyway, my brother and I are here to catch you up on what you missed today at school, only without the waffly lecture from Ushimaru." She said, her tone was jubilant and reminded Ann of Tanaka, though she probably actually sold something that worked.

 

"Also, you guys make any progress on the investigation?" Ann asked she was genuinely curious

 

"No, we just came up with two new avenues of investigation." Minato answered, "Using either the Student Council President or a teacher to help with the investigation, people are more likely to consider them as reputable sources."

 

"Y'know, instead of this," Minako said, gesturing to herself with a sweep of her right arm "and that," she added, sweeping her left arm in the direction of Minato, "Or Ryuji or you." She finished "No offence"

 

"Some taken" Ann responded, "Though you're probably right. Though speaking of Ryuji, where is he?"

 

"He's on his way home, he needs to help out at his house," Minako answered

 

"And you don't?"

 

"Don't tempt me." Minato said with a joking tone. "don't make me leave you alone with Minako." That was an actual threat, like a genuine one.

 

The rest of the night was spent teaching the two girls what had happened in a single school day, in a few hours. It was surprisingly easy, Minato made a habit of taking good notes and even gave them a few tricks that they could use, it also seemed that he had the perfect disposition when it came to taking what was essentially a case of cram class on steroids, in other words, the disposition of a man who had long stopped caring and just wants to get these notes quickly done, hell, he even left them his notebook.

 

Not that the notebook was as useful as his deadpan voice when it came to teaching, to put it simply, the boy had terrible handwriting, his sister's handwriting wasn't much better for that matter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a bit of a pain to write and due to the fact that we've never really seen Shiho in casual clothes, I had a hard time determining exactly what she would wear, so I figured that it would be pretty conservative. A thing which is apparent though is that Shiho has some pretty shitty parents, so I made them rather apathetic.
> 
> While with the whole Kamoshida incident, it's rather hard to determine how exactly to bring him to justice aside from pretty shady supernatural stuff to make him confess his crimes outside of his own free will. Either way, prepare for Makoto and Kawakami to do stuff.


	9. A Day Off

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An important factor in any person's life is rest and relaxation, some take to this concept better than others. Though during these periods of time, it is still important to plan for harder to come.

**17/04/2018 - 6:00 - Cafe Leblanc - Arisato Minato**

 

Minato woke up lazily and immediately looked at his phone. His first thought was something along the lines of "oh shit, I'm late!" though that was then replaced by a thought of "Oh wait, it's Sunday, I can get away with sleeping in." The next thing he noticed was the fact that Minako was poking him with a stick, repeatedly and in the side.

 

"Come on, get up," Minako said, sounding a bit annoyed at the fact that she had to get up in the morning. "We got to meet the gang." A trio of jabs hit him in the side, oh great, she was still calling them a gang, another trio of jabs. "We got to discuss our plans."

 

"I'm getting up, just stop jabbing me, you keep hitting my kidney.”

 

"Whoops," Minako said, not sounding sorry in the slightest, he could _hear_ her shit-eating grin.

 

**17/04/2018 - 8:00 - Shibuya - Arisato Minako**

 

The gang had gathered together and had met up at the square in Shibuya.

 

In terms of what they were wearing, Shiho was wearing a light blue pair of jeans and a white tank top with a light blue zip-up hoody. In addition, she was wearing a pair of white unbranded sports trainers. Minako approved deeply of the colour scheme and liked how it suited Shiho.

 

Ryuji was wearing a pair of black tracksuit bottoms, a dark-grey t-shirt with a yellow face wearing a pair of sunglasses, over than he was wearing a deep purple tracksuit top with red stripes along the sleeves and the number '777' on the back. Furthermore, he was also wearing yellow trainers, in other words, Minako found her sense of aesthetics being offended at the very sight of his trainers and how it worked with the rest of his clothes.

 

Ann was wearing the same outfit she was wearing yesterday, though Minako assumed that it was just a similar set of clothing rather than the same because that raised questions that Minako was comfortable with. In addition, she also seemed to be carrying two thin notebooks for whatever reason.

 

Her brother was wearing a pair of dark blue jeans with black boots, furthermore, he was wearing an off-colour white (oh god the obsession with the colour is spreading) t-shirt and an unbuttoned, black-ish brown blazer. He was also carrying a brown book bag which contained the Kamoshida Investigation File and a spare notebook for whatever, he also finally managed to get some hair dye the other day and his hair was finally a vibrant midnight blue, the redying of the hair was a reason why it took them two hours to meet up.

 

She was wearing a pair of non-prescription half-rim glasses with black frames, a Nuckeleeve hoody (that she bought from America last year), a black tank top, a pair of dark blue jeans and a pair of black trainers. In short, she looked like a bit of a hipster. her hair was still done up in the same way as normal.

 

The group, all five of them had met up in the square and looked like normal-ish teenagers, however, if you listened to the shit that they, it would be obvious that they were not normal.

 

"So Minato, Minako." Ann began "You left your notes at Shiho's place." She handed him the two thin notebooks that she was holding. He took them without complaint and went to put them into his bag.

 

"I hope they were useful," Minato said, his voice was somewhat confident in that, after all, he had elevated note-taking to an art form.

 

"They weren't," Shiho said, with a finality to her words that seemed like a guillotine coming down on a neck "We couldn't read your handwriting."

 

"See I to-" Minako began, only to be cut off by Ann who said

 

"We couldn't read yours either. Seriously, we've seen parts of your record, how the hell do you get such good grades considering your shitty handwriting?" Ann asked it was a genuine question

 

"We write neater for exams, it's just that it’s easier to take things down in quick hand when we're taking notes," Minato explained with the same lack of conviction that was present during the informal cram session.

 

"So... do you guys want to go anywhere, a Cafe perhaps?" Minako asked she wanted to be discussing their nefarious (benevolent) plans indoors where she could sit down.

 

"Which one?" Ann asked, gesturing her arms out to the large number of Cafes which occupied the large district

 

"I don't know, pick one." Minako threw back at the blonde.

**17/04/2018 - 8:10 - Diner - Arisato Minako**

 

When the gang made their way to the diner, which apparently just liked to be called 'Diner' for some odd reason. They settled down into one of the large booths, then they realised that there wasn't enough space for all of them in the large booths and as such, with permission from the staff, borrowed a chair from one of the unused tables and placed it next to their booth in order to seat all of them.

 

Minato pulled out the Kamoshida Investigation File "Alright, here's our current options," he said as he opened it on the table "We have currently got two main options for investigation, talking with one of the teachers and using them to conduct our investigation or getting the Student Council President to conduct the investigation."

 

No one at the table was terribly pleased with the options that were being put on display. "So those are our options?" Shiho asked, sounding uncertain and a bit disappointed.

 

"Unfortunately, if we do not want to risk the possibility of Kamoshida discovering our investigation than these are the best possible solutions." Minako explained from her borrowed chair, pushing up her glasses as she finished the sentence and continued "The option of asking some pupils has turned out to be and will continue to be a bust, while videoing Kamoshdia in the act would prove to be impossible, if it were, someone would have already done it by now." She sighed "So, yes, these are our options."

 

"Well, I think that we should go to Nijima-senpai," Shiho said, "It's better than asking one of the teachers and Nijima-senpai has proved to be very passionate once sufficiently motivated."

 

"Define: Sufficiently Motivated." Minato requested, taking up a Gendo pose

 

"Well, if you convince her that it's in the best interests of the student body, that would motivate her enough, another method would be a good letter of recommendation to a college, though we obviously can't do that," Shiho answered, sounding a bit bitter at the second method of motivation, Minako was sure that Shiho had muttered a few venomous words under her breath as well, but decided not to comment on it.

 

"I think the waitress wants our orders, or she's going to kick us out," Ryuji said, looking at a very pissed off waitress who was tapping her foot very impatiently.

**17/04/2018 - 9:30 - Shibuya - Arisato Minato**

 

So after a rather nice brunch and a brief discussion, all of the group wondered what they would do next. He would rather get his laptop and spend the day online, however, Uncle Akito hadn't seen fit to send his Nephew's laptop to him, or the majority of his sister's manga collection, it was fun to tease her over it.

 

Anyway, the gang (oh god, even he was thinking of them as a gang) had split up as they couldn't really agree on what to do afterwards, so Shiho went off the follow Ann like a puppy or someone who was horribly in love, the latter simile seemed to be more applicable in this situation. Ryuji limped back home, saying that he had to do his homework, Ann went off to the underground mall to do some window-shopping. So that just left the twins, who both were sitting down on a bench, Minako was reading some manga and letting the world pass her by, while Minato was checking the notes and then the file and then the notes again making sure that nothing was out of place and that everything that needed to be written down was written down.

 

**17/04/2018 - 9:35 - The Niijima Sisters' Flat - Niijima Makoto**

 

Makoto had a few thoughts on her mind at this hour, one of them was relating to the volleyball team, they all seemed to be so injured and depressed, yet when she asked all of them just brushed her off with various different responses and obvious excuses that she couldn't be bothered to get through.

 

The second thought was about that girl, the second-year, Suzui Shiho who was so ready to kill herself but was talked down by one of the transfer students of all people, a third thought was on the transfer students, they seemed to be really intelligent teenagers with a troubled past, and, not counting the assault charge, they had a perfect record, it didn't seem to make sense why would two people who are, by all previous reports, calm and stable suddenly decide to out of nowhere assault a man.

 

Though now that she thought about it, there was also the problem that their record seemed to be leaked on the school website, this meant that there was someone who had access to the records, most likely a teacher, who decided to ruin the two kid's lives.

 

She was currently just staring off into space, a notebook full of notes about schoolwork sitting open but neglected in front of her. The open window in her room providing a breath of fresh air that so different from the student council room, where, despite spending the entirety of last year and all of her time in third year requesting, the principal hadn't sent anyone to fix the air conditioner or the windows in the room, which basically meant that during the winter the room was too cold, during the summer it was flat out uninhabitable and during the spring it was stuffy.

 

Bringing her thoughts back to the transfer students, they were two twins who seemed to be moved across the entire country hopping from big cities to country towns, both of them were, by all teacher's accounts, very sharp minded, hell those comments even continued from the current teachers, even Ushimaru commented that she was rather intelligent, if a bit mouthy, which was basically about as high a praise as most people would get from the feared wielder of the death chalk.

 

Her phone, which was off to the side of her desk started to ring, playing the first few cords of 'Rivers in the Desert' before she picked it up, glad that there was something to distract her from her thoughts

 

"Makoto speaking." She said crisply into the phone.

 

"Hello Makoto-san" The familiar voice of Akechi Goro, the junior detective drifted through the phone's speaker "Do you wanna go see a movie?"

 

"When?" Makoto asked, despite how awkward Akechi Goro (though most just referred to him exclusively by his last name, even his friends) was, he was rumoured to be something of a lady killer, Makoto has never seen any evidence of this, _ever_ , even before Sae had a talk with him, she wasn't very sure what happened during that talk that for some reason required Sae to bring a shotgun along with her, but hey at least she wasn't getting on Makoto's back the second she so much as talked to Akechi.

 

"Right now, if that's okay, of course," Akechi said with all the confidence of that second-year boy Mishima when asked to do anything.

 

"Sure, why not?" She said, 'Not like I'm studying anyway' was what she wanted to add. The events of the recent week were interesting and she was sure that she needed more time to process those and what better way of doing so than by going to watch some action flick with the only teenager who she knows to have a mullet in the year of 2018.

 

She put away her book and her pen and prepared to go outside for the first time today. Though first, she'd have to talk to her, somewhat, overprotective sister.

**17/04/2018 - 10:00 - Toyo Cinemas - Niijima Makoto**

 

When she powerwalked there, she saw Akechi standing there in clothes that were so outdated that it was hilarious, he was wearing brown suit pants that didn't quite fit him, brown leather shoes, a white collared shirt (which wasn't so bad) and, _the pièce de résistance_ , his dark blue sweater vest, complete with a pattern of turquoise and light grey diamonds. He looked like he should be an old man telling her about what happened 'back in my days', but instead, he was a teenager who had several fangirls as a result of his few TV appearances, wealth and a Youtube series, he got bored quickly.

 

"Hey, Makoto." He said, greeting her with a nice nod and she swore she heard a few girls swooning behind her, "want to see 'Super Troopers 2'?" he asked, oh for once, it wasn't an action flick, it was instead a goddamn crime movie, she thought, it probably was.

 

She sighed heavily and nodded, making sure that he would pay for the tickets, he could spare the money.

**17/04/2018 - 11:00 - Shibuya - Arisato Minako**

 

After spending about an hour and so reading in the humid spring air, Minako got up and stretched, she really hoped no one saw her blushing while reading, it wasn't her fault that her favourite characters were happy again.

 

She wasn't entirely sure what to do now, there were a few cafes if she felt like spending some money on nothing that she'd like, she was sure that Ann, and by extension, Shiho were still in the underground mall, there were also a few bookstores that probably be happy to actually have someone even look at their stock. Of course, there was also the existence of the arcade, if she felt like being cheated out of some of her money in exchange for tickets, that actually felt really good.

 

She shook her head, this was too idiotic, she would be fine if her uncle actually sent her most of her manga, though knowing that man, he probably didn't approve of at least half of her collection, if not three quarters of her collection, so it was a wonder she got about a third of it, the other two thirds are most likely being burned on his fireplace. Actually, thinking of things that her uncle wouldn't approve of, it was time to tease some girl over her love life, she needed to find Ann.

 

**17/04/2018 - 12:00 - Toyo Cinemas - Niijima Makoto**

 

"What'd you think of the movie?" Akechi asked Makoto, he was a bit apprehensive. Though Makoto didn't really notice many things about the movie, she was still thinking about school.

 

The situation called for careful and delicate movements, something which the principal was not known and quite frankly, she doubted that he'd let her do anything that he could interpret as damaging the school's reputation. Which was really wide-ranging subject.

 

This could range from breathing out of place, too, hell, revealing that one of the teachers was, in fact, a rapist who liked abusing kids, but that was unlikely. "huh?" she responded eloquently.

 

"You look like you're troubled, need to vent on me?" Akechi asked, he was usually smart, but here he was a moron, he had no idea what he was getting himself into.

 

"Yeah, sure in my room. I _need_ to vent." Makoto said to him.

 

**17/04/2018 - 13:30 - The Niijima Sisters' Flat - Niijima Makoto**

 

Akechi took a seat for himself at the desk in Makoto's bedroom, while Makoto took a seat for herself on her bed. "So what did you want to talk about?" Akechi asked.

 

"It's about school..." Makoto began "Don't roll your eyes at me, I'm being serious."

 

"I wasn't rolling my eyes," Akechi said, pleading innocence, "continue with your story."

 

"Anyway, there's these new transfer students, a pair of second-years." Makoto continued, mentally searching for the right words to use "They're both twins who were convicted of assault, but I can't seem to make heads or tails of them."

 

"What do you mean?" Akechi asked, looking rather interested now.

 

"Well, while they were convicted, they've shown no violent tendencies at school so far, most of the teachers say that they're a bit mouthy and the worse one of them did was verbally shredding a third-year." She sighs "However, they have exceedingly high test scores and all previous reports before their assault charge mark them as being harmless and very intelligent."

 

"Well, not all criminals are mindless thugs." Akechi said, offering his point of view "A good way to see how they act is to check with who they're associating with."

 

"Well, they're associating themselves with Sakamoto-san, a student who once punched the gym teacher and is considered the school delinquent, they are also associating themselves with Takamaki-san, who is actively shunned by most of the school." Makoto supplied. "Though the most interesting thing that happened is on the 15th, one of Takamaki-san's few friends, Suzui-san was about to jump off the school's roof, when Minako-san, one of the two transfer students, seemed to talk Suzui-san out of jumping."

 

Akechi put his hand on his chin and rubbed it slightly, "Well, it might be a case of Minako-san feeling remorse for her crimes," he started "While, for their friends, it makes sense that criminals would make friends with the ones in the school who are social pariahs. What about the other one?"

 

"He's called Minato, regarded as the more intimidating of the two and the quietest of the two. The worst he does is be a friend for Sakamoto-san." Makoto answered "He really hasn't done much, which just makes me nervous that he's doing something behind the scenes.

 

"You talk about them a bit like most knew that they were criminals," Akechi observed, rubbing his clean-shaven chin some more

 

"That's correct, the day before they entered school, their records were leaked to the school forums, specifically just one page of their record, it was the one that showed both their face and their criminal record." Makoto said, "I'm one of the few people who has seen their entire record."

 

"And what do you think of it?" Akechi asked

 

"Confused, they seemed to have been moved around the country from an early year, they change school every term except for last year, where they attended school for a full year before they were expelled for assaulting a man." Makoto answered, "Though, what confuses me is why they both assaulted the same person, at the same time."

 

"Have you tried talking to them?" Akechi asked.

 

"No, not yet, I've been drowned in Student Council Work and Suzui-san almost jumping as well as the Volleyball rally has me swamped in work." She answered. Her mind turned to other topics, "Furthermore, I wasn't able to ascertain why Suzui-san tried to jump off the roof, due to the fact that Minako-san went home with Suzui-san afterwards, it hints that the twins might know the reason why she did it."

 

"But, you don't know."

 

"Yes, it didn't help that Suzui-san was off yesterday. She, understandably, called in sick."

 

"This actually sounds vaguely interesting," Akechi said, "Do make sure that you'll keep me informed about this process, better yet, see if you can't get a recording of you talking to the new transfer students. What did you say their names were again?"

 

"Oh right, they're Arisato Minato and Arisato Minako." Makoto answered "Wait, why do you want to know this?"

 

"If you ever need any help, I'm sure I could access their police files, you'll be surprised about some of the holes in their security."

 

Makoto checked her phone, it was 15:00, huh, that was fast. "Thanks but I'm sure I won't need you to access their police files." She showed him the time on her phone "I'm pretty sure that you'll need to go soon, I don't want to keep you." This was her version of politely asking for him to leave, thankfully, he understood and saw himself out.

 

Honestly, checking their police records, why the hell would she need those?

**17/02/2018 - 18:00 - Cafe Leblanc - Arisato Minako**

Minako was wondering why when they got home, Sojiro threw a couple of aprons at them and told them to wait for when he closed the store.

 

Minako, knowing full well that things were going to get messy when aprons involved removed her hoody and put the apron on over her tank-top. Minato was of a similar disposition and removed his blazer, hanging it up on a coat hanger in the corner of the room and put the blazer over his t-shirt.

 

They were both standing behind the counter at Cafe Leblanc with a very intense looking Sojiro standing in front of them.

 

"Listen up kids," He began, his voice firm but at the same time, somewhat soft "Considering that you're living with me, you will soon have to be earning your keep. So I'm going to teach you how to make Coffee, Leblanc style."

 

Minako's eyes widened, while his curry was figuratively, and possibly literally, divine, the coffee was what most people came here for, she couldn't imagine how good it would taste.

 

Maybe this year wouldn't be so bad after all...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: I wrote the opening to Chapter 10 before I realised that the 17th would be a Sunday and therefore, school would not be happening on that day.
> 
> Furthermore, I can't be the only one who gets actually, physically disgusted by Ackhei's casual clothes, I mean, a sweater vest, in Summer are you trying to kill yourself via dehydration. I also figured that Ackhei and Makoto would know each other due to Sae, that and Sae would be the overprotective sister type.


	10. The Game is Afoot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Game is Afoot is a saying that is commonly used in reference to whenever an investigation begins or 'heats up' as it were. This investigation is no exception.

**18/04/2018 - 7:30 - Shujin Academy - Arisato Minato**

 

Minato was on the hunt, specifically for a certain goody-two-shoes third year. From all accounts, the girl has auburn brown hair with a weird braid that could very well be a hairband, though more importantly, she has striking red eyes like she's an albino.

 

Though quite a lot of the third years are avoiding him like he's got the plague. Though some of them were wondering what a delinquent was doing around the school hallways, clearly looking for something

 

That was until, he found what he was looking for, the student council room. he knocked on the door and opened it, not even waiting for a response.

**18/04/2018 - 7:35 – Student Council Room - Arisato Minato**

 

When he entered the student council room, the thing that struck him the most was just how stuffy the room was, none of the windows were open and the room was at that kind of warm temperature that goes from wanting to put you to sleep and had reached that level where it became physically uncomfortable. There was a whiteboard in the corner of the room that had various things written down in scrawling handwriting in black marker pen, various stacks of paper littered the desks of the room, either stacks of unbound permission and funding forms or spiral bound requests or something similar.

 

There was only one person in the room, sitting down at the desk closest to the windows. It was the person who he was looking for, Nijima Makoto.

 

Just as what he heard, the girl had auburn hair that went down to her chin, combined with a weird braid on her hair that looked kind of like a hairband. Her features were angular and her skin was pale, probably from the amount of time she spends working in this room. Her eyes were focused on a piece of paper that she was holding, clearly reading it intently to the point where she hadn't even noticed him enter the room. Though when it looked at them they were a very striking shade of red, it almost made him think that she was an albino, though the natural shine of the hair convinced him otherwise.

 

In terms of what she was wearing, it was most likely, though he couldn't see it, she was wearing the Shujin Academy Uniform skirt, though he could be wrong considering who everyone in this school seems to take the uniform policy and throw it out a window and she was no exception to this. She was wearing a typical white dress shirt and instead of wearing the school jumper, she went with a black waistcoat. In addition, it seemed that she was wearing a black wrist brace, no really, she was actually wearing one, he wasn't sure how someone would do that much work that they'd get RSI from it, but he sure that she'd be willing to tell him that that's how you know you're working hard. Her school blazer hung on one of the empty chairs in the room.

 

After sufficiently analysing her appearance for future reference, he coughed into his fist in order to get her attention, causing her to slightly jump in her chair and put the paper down and look at him.

 

"Niijima-senpai, I presume?" Minato began, getting himself a seat with his right hand dragging it up to himself, the question was rhetorical, the school forum had a disturbingly large amount of threads dedicated to Makoto's appearance "What if I told you about the reason why Suzui-san was about to try to kill herself."

 

Makoto raised a single eyebrow at this, apparently intrigued. "Go on..."

**18/04/2018 - 7:40 - Student Council Room - Niijima Makoto**

 

Makoto felt the urge to be sick at all the things that Minato had told her, he told her this in the most clinical and apathetic tone that she had heard in her life.

 

Kamoshida was worse than she thought it would be, beating the entirety of the volleyball team, punishing specific members harshly for minor mistakes and then, well, what he did to Suzui.

 

She wasn't really sure how to respond to that. Or to the next thing Minato asked.

 

"Could you please help me in bringing Kamoshida to justice?" He asked, his tone just as emotionless as before.

 

"What?" She asked she wasn't entirely sure how to respond to that, every instinct was telling her to side with them, but her better judgement said that this wouldn't result in much.

 

"I wouldn't have told you everything I just told you if I didn't believe that you wanted to improve the school." Minato said, "So, I'll ask again, would you please help me bring Kamoshida to justice?"

 

"Why not go to the teachers?"

 

"Really? I'll give you a hint, leaked criminal record, most of the teachers look like they are disgusted with my very existence." That did make sense, most of the teachers were wary of people with a history of violence, she remembered something similar a year or so ago with one of her senpais. Troublesome, really. "You, on the other hand, teachers would trust you." He said, being utterly unashamed that he was going to be using her.

 

"So, you're _using_ me."

 

"Yes." Minato said with no dancing around it "But the fact that I am using you says that you're worth using. I can feel it, you're just as sick with this school as I am." he paused for a second, in a motion that looks natural but felt practised "Or was I wrong and are you just going to think that nothing is wrong even as your kohai are suffering." He stood up from his seat. "I'm already late for homeroom, tch. If you want to do the right thing, meet me on the roof at lunchtime."

 

He walked out of the room, closing the door behind him and leaving her alone in the stuffy student council room.

**18/04/2018 - 12:00 - Shujin Academy - Niijima Makoto**

 

Makoto walked up to the roof, ignoring the fact that she was breaking at least several school rules and noting the fact that the door should be locked, but the padlock she remembered putting up last year had been removed.

 

She opened the door and found herself on the roof, standing around at a corner, at some of the old desks and chairs, there was Sakamoto, both the Arisatos, Suzui and Takamaki. _Quite a collection of people._

 

"Ah, so you do want to do the right thing," Minato said, he turned to Sakamoto, a clearly playful expression on his face "So what was that about the Student Council President not caring?"

 

"Alright, you were right," Sakamoto said, sounding annoyed

 

"Damn right I was..." He cleared his throat and his face turned from having a playful expression to a more neutral expression "Anyway, Nijima-senpai, I'm going to assume that this means you accept the offer."

 

"You are correct," Makoto said, she wasn't all that comfortable in the presence of the school delinquents.

 

"Excellent." Minako said, taking over for her brother, her expression was a bit more cheerful, but her cheer did feel somewhat out of place "We've tried investigating Kamoshida in order to bring him to justice, but we have hit something of a roadblock. You see, we're kind of conspicuous and no-one really wants to open up to the people who have previously assaulted someone, even if they ask nicely." She said, her tone out of place but definitely a change from her brother's listlessness "That's where you come in, apparently, teachers trust you and are more likely to not take what you're saying with a grain of salt. In other words..."

 

"We need you to help with our investigation and try to get one of the teachers on our side." Minato finished. His words quick and to the point. She could appreciate that,

 

"So, you want me, the Student Council President, the one with connections to one of the country's up and coming prosecutors, to help tell the teachers, on another teacher?" Makoto said, making sure that she was hearing this correctly.

 

"Who said I was done talking?" Minako said, "That is a part of your job, yes, but another part would be to help us gather evidence, you could probably help us get some more confessions out of members of the Volleyball team, or actually talk to the head of the school newspaper who is absolutely terrified of us." Minako explained, at the end, her tone was a bit annoyed and somewhat bitter. "Surprisingly good at hiding that one and we even checked all the person-sized cardboard boxes..."

 

"She's changed her tactics," Makoto said to herself, Yori, as she was known as had a habit of pulling a solid snake, her changing tactics was ... _unsettling_. Makoto checked her phone and saw the time. "I must be going, I've got a few things I have to organise with the Student Council," Neither of the twins looked pleased with that, but let her go.

**18/04/2018 - 15:30 - Shujin Academy - Suzui Shiho**

 

One thing that felt really weird to Shiho nowadays was actually not attending Volleyball Practice and to be honest, it was kind of hard not to, the practice, no matter how painful it was, became a part of her daily schedule and she had to actively stop herself from not going to practice like she was on autopilot.

 

They had a clear plan worked out for after school, she'd meet up with Ann at the shoe locker and get to her place, constantly checking to make sure that Kamoshida didn't have a Shujin Student following her.

 

Shame that no plan really survives contact with the enemy, when she made her way down to the shoe lockers, she heard the voice of Kamoshida "Why are you no longer taking my calls?" He asked an unknown participant of the conversation, Shiho ducked behind the shoe lockers and listened in.

 

"I thought it was obvious." The voice of ... Ann said, clearly disgusted with Kamoshida "Fuck a gym sock, sex was never part of the agreement." What the hell was she talking about

 

"Bu-" Kamoshida began

 

"But nothing, I told it to you thrice, I'm not interested in sex." Ann sighed "In fact, I wanted to drop this subtly, but the entire agreement is off. I'm blocking your number."

 

What was this about, Ann was dating Kamoshida, why? What was this about an agreement?

 

"You know what will happen to Suzui-san if you do, right?" Kamoshida said, she could almost hear his predatory grin, this was a man who had decades of experience at manipulating people

 

"You know that's a bluff, right?" Ann shot back, her voice as hard as steel "It's funny thinking that I would fall for such an obvious bluff." There was the sound of a shoe locker opening.

 

"Wha-"

 

"Shut up, _sensei_ ," Ann said, putting a sarcastic emphasis on the word 'sensei' "I imagine that you have a volleyball team to 'coach'"

 

Shiho turned a corner and heard the heavy footfalls of a very pissed off Kamoshida moving past her hiding place. This was so much to process, what did they mean 'agreement', what did it have to do with her, it did explain why Kamoshida stopped beating her as much last year, or at least, tried to make the bruises less visible.

 

She stepped out from her hiding place and went to replace her school slippers with her shoes, there were a few tears in her eyes, this meant that Ann was straight, all of Shiho's hopes of a bright future alone with the foreign girl went spiralling down the drain.

 

"Hey Shiho, nice timing," Ann said, her voice like a melody and oh god, Shiho couldn't help it, even if Ann was most likely straight, "Want to head home or stop someplace else?" She asked she was always so nice, Shiho wondered how Ann's lips would feel or if she would oblige Shiho's fantasies,

 

"Could we stop by that diner, you know the one in Shibuya," Shiho asked, she resisted the urge to look at Ann, those eyes would just make Shiho fall in love all over again.

 

"Sure, just don't be surprised if the Arisatos jump in, they mentioned that they might have spare time today," Ann said, her voice was somewhat annoyed by that.

**18/04/2018 - 16:10 - Diner - Takamaki Ann**

 

If there were three things that Ann was sure of, one would be that she was glad to have officially broken up with Kamoshida, the man was at least fifty (he never said what his actual age was) and he always smelled like cheap deodorant and sweat. That and she was his trophy girlfriend.

 

Second would be that she had it really bad, even if Ann was sometimes oblivious to her own feelings, she could acknowledge that Shiho was one of the most beautiful people she'd ever met and that Ann was not-biased in that regard at all, she'd also be happier if Minako didn't tease her over her crush.

 

The third was that Shiho was hiding something, despite her normal misery, the girl seemed to be carrying extra weight on her shoulders, which was just even more fun.

 

Both the girls had spent some money on some Coffee, Shiho's was black and Ann's was a flat white. They were sitting opposite from each other as they sat in a booth near the exit, Shiho looked like she wanted to talk about something, but was trying to gather the courage to say something.

 

"Something on your mind?" Ann asked, taking a sip of her coffee.

 

"What was the conversation with Kamoshida about?" Shiho asked, oh shit, she was actually asking about that. "Why were you in a relationship with him?"

 

"I..." Ann stumbled, at a loss for words for one of the first few times in her life "I was dating him to protect you." she said finally, there was no point lying about it, Ann could stretch the truth and be a liar by omission, but now that Shiho was asking, there was no point, she let the twins know. "It was when I first noticed the bruises last year. However, he kept steadily increasing the demands, it came to a head last week when he asked for sex, again." Ann spilt the beans, knowing there was no point in lying to Shiho. "He offered me an ultimatum, I'd either stop by his place or you'd be removed from the team."

 

"You chose to remove me from the team," Shiho said, her voice shaking and her eyes blazing with rage

 

"I told him to go fuck a gym sock, I didn't know if he would keep his end of the deal." Ann said, trying to calm Shiho down "I didn't know that, it would get this bad." She added, her voice low "I did everything in my power to protect you. But I couldn't go through with it, I must be some shitty friend." It was true, she had kept the relationship a secret for the same exact reason she entered that relationship. Shiho's eyes were still angry.

 

"But why never tell me? Didn't it concern you that I might want to know why my friend was looking so dead inside." Shiho asked, did Ann really look that bad when she was dating Kamoshida, she supposes that her eyes didn't shine nearly as much.

 

"I couldn't think of anything to do and I didn't know how you would react to the news, whenever I talked to you, I forgot about the relationship, or at least rationalised it in my head, it was worth it to see you smile again," Ann said, realising that she was coming dangerously close to confessing to Shiho, she wants a distraction, just literally _anything_ else so that she doesn't have to tell Shiho the full truth, Ann didn't want to ruin her friendship like that.

 

"So you hid the minor fact that you were dating the gym teacher, from me?" Shiho asked, there were a few tears that were falling and her voice was shaky. Ann was extremely glad that the Diner was empty for this time of day, though she could feel the waitress there giving her a dirty look.

 

"Yes, I was," Ann said, she wasn't entirely sure how to proceed with this conversation, she really hoped that literally, anything else would happen, that was when her phone buzzed, several times, she would answer it, but Shiho wouldn't appreciate that "You never really asked and I thought I could dodge the topic. I'm going to assume that you heard how the conversation ended, I have broken up with Kamoshida." Ann held out one of her napkins to Shiho for her to use as a tissue. Which the dark haired girl accepted.

 

"Thanks, Ann." Shiho said, wiping away her tears "You've always been so nice to me." Ann's face was red from the praise, how was that dark-haired girl able to so quickly steal her heart? How was she able to mess with Ann's emotions so easily?

 

Ann just nodded, instead of saying what she really thought, Shiho still thought of Ann as a friend didn't she? Though she didn't want Shiho to figure this one out right now. Ann's phone vibrated several more times. "Do you mind if I look at these texts?" Shiho nodded "Good, you might want to drink your coffee."

 

 **Ko:** Hey

 **Ko:** Why'd none of you tell me how pretty Makoto was?

 **Ko:** I figured she wouldn't be that good looking but damn

 **Ko:** Why aren't you responding?

 **Ko:** Managed to confess your undying love to Shiho?

 **Ko:** If so, tell how it went.

 

Ann looked at these texts with a somewhat sour glare, Minako's teasing did not help with her feelings, though it seems that Minako had the hots for a senpai. She had teasing ammo against Minako

 

 **Ann:** I thought her hotness was common knowledge

 **Ann:** Didn't think you were the type to crush on a Senpai

 **Ko:** Shut up

 **Ann:** Only if you stop teasing me over Shiho

 **Ko:** Fine, I'll try.

 **Ko:** It's not my fault that Makoto is hot.

 **Ko:** Moving on from Gay Stuff

 **Ko:** How is Shiho actually?

 **Ann:** Currently with me.

 **Ann:** Found out that I was dating Kamoshida

 **Ann:** Also found out that I just broke up with Kamoshida.

 **Ko:** Still pretty?

 **Ann:** Still pretty.

 **Ann:** Wait, shit.

 **Ko:** This is fun.

 **Ann:** Shut up

 

"What's it about?" Shiho asked, curious at Ann's facial expression

 

"Minako's texting me." Ann remarked "She can be ... interesting when it comes to texts."

 

"How so?"

 

"She's benefitting from the fact that someone can't punch her through a screen, for one," Ann said, it was true, she did lack the ability to punch through a screen and Minako was certainly benefitting from that. "She also takes a large amount of joy in teasing people." Ann took a sip of her coffee and noticed that it was getting cold, she really should have drunk this coffee faster. As long as Shiho didn't take an interest in what the teasing was about Ann would be good.

**18/04/2018 - 16:25 - Shujin Academy - Niijima Makoto**

 

"Yori-san," Makoto called out as she ran up to the girl, who was one of the few people in the school who actually wore the full school uniform without swapping out anything, though her hair was longer than school regulations, but Makoto could list all the girls on one finger who cared about that rule, Makoto was one of the people who did care about the rule. "I just want to talk to you about something."

 

The long-haired girl stopped walking and faced Makoto, "What is it you want to talk about Niijima-san?"

 

"Has there been anything interesting happen with the volleyball team?" Makoto asked

 

"Nothing that interesting, Suzui-san seems to have left the club based on the fact that she missed two practice sessions. I also think this third year has left the volleyball team as well, Ikki-kun, I think." Yori than looked at Makoto oddly "That's about all I can think of, off the top of my head, why do you want to know this?"

 

"I'm sort of interested, you know, considering recent events," Makoto said, waving off the question with practised ease. "Thanks for telling me anyway, it's been good talking to you." Makoto bowed slightly and walked away from Yori.

**18/04/2018 - 17:00 - Shibuya Station - Arisato Minako**

To be honest, Minako would admit that she had long since blown her monthly budget and was dipping into next months budget, in short, she had severely underestimated the cost of living in Tokyo.

 

As such, she found herself looking at the pamphlets for part-time jobs, convenience store job, didn't pay that well but had low requirements, beef bowl place, required a hard worker but was also only in the evening, which immediately ruled it out due to the fact that Sojiro wasn't letting them out during the evening. Finally, there was a job offer at a flower shop, which looked like it would be easy money.

 

"What you looking at?" Minato asked, walking up behind his sister.

 

"Some job pamphlets." She answered "I think I found one for you." she handed him the flower shop pamphlet. She could hear his eye twitching.

 

"You blew your monthly budget, didn't you?" Minato asked, his voice stern

 

"Yes," Minako said, "Everything in this city is ridiculously expensive. I'll take a look round some of these pamphlets, I only took a quick glance." Minako looked around and saw one for 'Crossroads Bar' it was in the city's red light district, she saw another one, it was looking for a part-time tutor. Minako felt a grin creep its way onto her face from just seeing that "Scratch the job at the flower shop, here's one that's perfect." She handed him the tutor job, though a small part of her wanted to hand him the one for Crossroads Bar, "This one is also really good for you." She said as she passed him the aforementioned pamphlet. There was a moment of silence as Minato read through each pamphlet and then he slapped Minako upside the head.

 

"You're really funny." Minato said sarcastically "Though seriously, the tutor job was a good idea." He reached into the pamphlets and pulled out one, "Hm, it seems to be a maid cafe job in Akihabara." He laughed and Minako was somewhat amused by the boy's high pitched laughter.

 

"Yes, dress up in an embarrassing outfit, refer to everyone as 'master' and appeal to otakus and weeaboos alike." Minako said, taking a look at it "Though it pays well, and it does place me in an area relevant to my interests." She took the pamphlet and put it into her pocket, she couldn't tell what Minato put into his pocket but she figured that it was either the flower shop job or the tutor job.

 

"Do you think you'll get the job?" Minato asked

 

"Absolutely not, but it should give me some good practice for the actual process," she answered, her voice certain and bit humorous. Her phone vibrated, she looked down at it.

 

 **Makoto:** Hey, Minako

 **Ko:** Yeah,

 **Makoto:** just talked to the school newspaper girl

 **Makoto:** Some third-year left the volleyball team, Ikki-kun.

 **Ko:** Thanks

 

Minako looked up from the phone, "Makoto just gave us another name."

 

"Another member of the volleyball team?" Minato asked

 

"Left it recently, goes by 'Ikki-kun' don't have any other details, Makoto will probably look up his file later," Minako answered.

 

"Another name and that means, another lead."

 

"The game is afoot," Minako said jokingly, with a tone of voice reminiscent of the old detective novels.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I figured that Shiho would eventually hear about Ann's relationship with Kamoshida if she hadn't heard it and if she hadn't, she might feel betrayed in a way by the relationship.
> 
> In terms of Kamoshida's age, I don't think we're actually given a figure, however, based on the fact that it is likely that Kamoshida has been doing it for years and based off his comment in canon about "When I was still rocking it." I would figure that he would be at least in his late forties and at worst, in his early sixties (with the help of hair dye to conceal any grey hairs and he is athletic, so he'd be in good condition
> 
> While with the twins, I decided that the twins would start worrying about their budget due to the fact that everything in a capital city is hella expensive. Also, Minato's possible tutor job was at the suggestion of a certain commenter. As always, I am begging you to comment, it is something that gives me the will to write this.


	11. The Next Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes everything happens during a single day, other times, during a single day, nothing happens. People experience both throughout all their lives, the lives of The Fools aren't so different.

**19/04/2018 - 7:10 - Shujin Academy - Arisato Minako**

 

Minako looked at the job pamphlet some more, while the concept of wearing a maid outfit as embarrassing, especially since she knew that it was a fetish of some people, however, the pay was really good, though given that it was Akihabara, it was likely that she would end up spending most of it in the same district, this would also give her an excuse to go to so many events, not that she needed one.

 

 _Money or Dignity_? that was the question and dear god why was she treating this like she was prostituting herself? It was then that the door opened.

 

In walked her brother Minato, looking somewhat annoyed. He sat down in his chair with a huff, "Still can't find the head of the school newspaper, I think she's hiding in the lockers at this point." He said, in one of the rare moments when he let his annoyance show on his face. "You still checking out that job opportunity?"

 

"Yeah, I'm just wondering if the money is worth it," Minako said

 

"You're blowing your budget, you'll probably need the job." Minato responded, "Hell, it costs like 200 yen to get a ticket to Akihabara, right?"

 

"Yeah, something like that," Minako responded, taking a look at the pamphlet, I'll call them asking about the job after school." She stuffed the pamphlet back into her pocket.

 

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say that you secretly wanted that job." He said, a grin on his face, he was right, Minako kinda had an interest in working in one of those cafes.

 

"No." She lied, her face turning a bit red, "Can we drop the subject, please?"

 

"Nerd." He said as he leaned away from her and pulled out the folder in his bag, reading through it and occasionally fiddling with the pages.

**19/04/2018 - 9:40 - Shujin Academy - Arisato Minato**

It was time for a class with the _lovely_ Hiruta, the school's youngest teacher (according to him) and had one of the weirdest fashion senses that Minato had laid eyes on.

 

In terms of what he looked like, Minato would start with the head, he had perfectly normal Japanese features, his hair was done in what could be considered a bowl cut with a fringe that went off to the left. He had a rather thin frame that seemed like it was perfect for a Latin dancer, in terms of what he was wearing, he was wearing a pair of maroon suit trousers, to add to this, there was a black suit shirt, combined with a black waistcoat with three light grey verticle stripes on each side in symmetrical fashion. To top it all off, he wore an off-colour white cravat. See why Minato thought of this guy like a Latin dancer?

 

Minato had his head down copying down notes, Hiruta's teaching style was one of talking really fast, he only wrote important concepts on the board and didn't focus on waffly lectures. His head only popped up to record down anything new if heard the sound of something being written on the blackboard.

 

"Arisato-san." He said, causing both of the twins to bring their heads up, "The male one." he added, narrowing it down. "Since you look like you're paying attention, tell me, what is line A connected to." he pointed towards an optical illusion that he had drawn on the board.

 

"It's connected to C." He said, crisply, Hiruta made a hand motion that clearly showed that he wanted Minato to explain further. "it's an optical illusion, line A looks like it should connect to line B, but drawing a line between the two easily shows that it is connected to line C." He finished, checking his notes to make sure that he had that written down.

 

"Correct, I initially thought that you were recording down information without understanding it, but it seems that you work a little differently." Was that a compliment, it sounded like one but at the same time, it also sounded like a thinly veiled insult.

 

He could hear some murmuring from other students, but he paid them little mind and went back to recording down notes as Hiruta described the concept of the optical illusion at warp speed. What a _fun_ teacher.

**19/04/2018 - 12:20 - Shujin Academy - Arisato Minato**

 

The group was gathered on the rooftop once again, though they were waiting for Makoto, once again.

 

"We might as well set up a table here or something." Minako thought out loud.

 

"Why?" Ann asked

 

"We spend most of our lunchtimes here and it would make it easier to eat our lunches," Minako answered.

 

"Are we pretending that there aren't large scale logistical concerns about getting a table of any kind up here?" Minato asked, "Because I imagine that there are quite a few logistical concerns about that."

 

"It was just a stray thought," Minako said, "though, yeah there would be a large number of questions why the school delinquents are sneaking in flatpack furniture." said, "though that would be funny to explain."

 

It was at this moment that Makoto managed to make her appearance, her breathing was slightly increased and it was obvious that she was at the very least jogging up to the roof.

 

"I've managed to get a photo of Ikki-kun," Makoto said, she pulled out her phone and showed the photo to the gang.

 

The boy looked, well a bit ugly, though the broken nose and the fact that most of his face was bruised tissue probably had something to do with that. He long raven hair that was done up into a low ponytail, which in the photo was resting on his right shoulder. In the photo, he was posing next to a statue.

 

"It's a recent photo," Makoto explained, "One of the student council members was good friends with the guy and took his photo."

 

"How do they know each other." The thought of a member of the student council knowing someone who looked like he had been hit in the face with a baseball bat was a jarring image.

 

"All third-years know each other, to some extent," Makoto answered vaguely, clearly enjoying the fact that her answer just raised further questions.

**19/04/2018 - 16:30 - Cafe Leblanc - Arisato Minako**

 

The Arisato twins were sitting down at one of the booths in the corner of the cafe, not really scaring away customers (Because there were none) and biding their time until the store closed. Sojiro appeared to be enjoying himself and was sipping a cup of coffee that he had apparently brewed just before they came in, causing the room to smell of fresh coffee.

 

It was then that they heard an old-timey ringtone, that sounded oddly like an old Nokia ringtone.

 

Sojiro pulled out an old flip-phone and answered it. "Sakura speaking." He said, his voice was gruff but there was an undercurrent of a businessman in there as well. The twins heard something from his phone "Oh, it's you." he said, his mouth was curling into something that could be described as a smile and his tone of voice lightened from old salaryman to 'caring father' "Don't worry, I'm closing up soon. An hour at the most." He said, his tone was reassuring and it warmed Minako's heart to see that Sojiro had someone he cared for, that meant that there was a child of the God of Coffee that was Sojiro. "Fine, fifteen minutes and don't call me old." He put away the phone and saw that both the twins were looking at him.

 

"Hot date tonight?" Minato asked without a hint of sarcasm.

 

"Shut up." Sojiro said, "I think both of you still have some dishes to clean."

 

"By the way, Sakura-san," Minako began "Am I allowed to get a job?"

 

"Of course," Sojiro responded, "Though on that note." He took a set of keys and threw them at the twins, Minato caught them easily "Nice catch, these are a set of spare keys for Leblanc so that I don't have to wait for both of you to come home before I close up, just be sure to lock up before you go to sleep and don't go out of the street in the evening, got it."

 

Those were surprisingly generous terms, most people don't even trust them with anything sharper than a crayon. Both the twins nodded.

 

"Where's that job anyway?" Sojiro was taking a sip from a cup of coffee

 

"Akihabara," Minako said

 

"Do you know any of the details of this job?" He asked, his eyes looked a little disappointed at the mention of the district.

 

"Yeah," Minako answered, pulling the pamphlet out of her blazer pocket. "Its here, I did a search on my phone and the position is still open."

 

"Smart girl," Sojiro said, "You should actually call them about the job opening, part-time jobs like that don't really need much in the way of qualifications, though your record will affect your chances of getting a job,"

 

Minako was sure that Sojiro was probably the closest she'd get to a father, her uncles and aunties only really saw the both of them as a nuisance, the black sheep of the family, but Sojiro was treating them right, well, still as a pain but he was warming to the two.

 

"Okay," Minako picked up her smartphone and quickly typed in the phone number for the job.

 

"Hello, _Grey Cloud_ _Cafe_. How can I help you?" The voice on the other end spoke in heavily accented Japanese, she thinks that it might be an American accent.

 

"Hello, I was wondering if your part-time job offer was still open?"

 

"That one, yeah, it's still open, I guess your applying?"

 

"I wouldn't be calling otherwise," Minako said, her voice was humorous and she could hear the receptionist on the other side laughing.

 

"Okay, we need to pencil in your interview, how's tomorrow at 5 PM for you?" the voice said, what followed was a few sounds that would have obviously been the receptionist reaching around for something.

 

"Okay," Minako said, she'd be lying if she didn't say that she was checking the train routes all the way back home, it was safe to say that she knew the route pretty well, theoretically at least. She looked at Sojiro "I think that went well."

 

"You are aware that there's a long-standing set of rules about talking over the phone?" Sojiro said to her.

 

"Yes and don't worry, it was an American on the other end, chances are they wouldn't know about those rules," Minako said, waving the problem off.

 

"Well, they got employed, so chances are that they do." Sojiro said, "Kids these days..." he stage-whispered, making sure that the twins could hear him. He looked at his watch and then back to the twins, he took off his apron, storing it under the counter and then proceeded to leave, just stopping to say "I should go." on his way out.

 

The twins looked at each other and said at the same time "This year might not be so bad."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't really think of much, though I suppose I could chalk this chapter up to one of those days where nothing really happens.
> 
> In case you are wondering, there is a complex set of rules relating to talking on phones in Japan, a set of rules that I don't know about and I assume someone like Minako wouldn't be bothered about them.
> 
> As always, make sure to comment and leave me with your thoughts, for they are what feeds me.


	12. Working Out Some Problems (Causing More as Well)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes, in the effort of helping someone with a problem, a mistake will be made, in the case of Arisato Minako, she's been making the same mistake for years now.

**20/04/2018 - 7:30 - Shujin Academy - Arisato Minato**

 

Minato was lurking around the shoe lockers, he did have a purpose aside from looking creepy. He was checking for Ikki-kun, if he figured out the shoe locker, he could leave the notice for meeting up. It was in the form of a small letter, Makoto did the writing for it and Minato would admit that her handwriting was godly.

 

Suddenly, he saw the boy that he was looking for, black ponytail and all, despite his broken nose and various other bruises and cuts, Minato did admit, Ikki-kun had something of a rugged beauty to him. Minako shook his head and looked at the boy in more detail, he had finally found one of the rare cases of someone who followed the school uniform policy and was dressed in full uniform, though he was ignoring the school policy on hair, though it seemed that everyone here ignored the school rules to some extent.

_"Hey, isn't that the delinquent?"_

_"What's he doing?"_

_"Don't know, man, and don't want to either."_

As the boy took his slippers out of the school locker, Minato paid close attention, ignoring the gossipers, trying to figure out which locker was the boy's one.  As the boy left, Minato made his move and walked up to the shoe locker, he slid the small letter in and walked away, the arrangements had been made, all that there was left was to see if Ikki-kun would leave them hanging or if he would actually talk.

**20/04/2018 - 8:00 - Shujin Academy - Suzui Shiho**

 

Shiho wasn't sure what to think of the situation, within a week, her entire world had been shattered but what was worse was that her thoughts weren't on the man who shattered her world, no it’s on the girl who was willing to sell her body and soul just to help her friend.

 

That word, _'friend'_ , it used to fill Shiho with so much joy and it made her really happy to call such a girl her friend, but now... now, it didn't feel nearly as good, it felt more like a dagger in her chest, because she knew that was all they would ever be, just friends.

 

The lesson from Kawakami isn't registering, the words of the perpetually exhausted teacher might as well have been cast upon the breeze for all the good it does for Shiho. Her notebook is blank and her pen lies unused in her hand.

 

Takamaki Ann was a girl that always seemed to be on Shiho's mind, from when they met first in middle school, the blonde girl had been so beautiful and her hair was so silky and as she got older those curves developed quite well, she was always so popular with the guys and yet she never had a boyfriend. Her eyes were beautiful, especially now that she broke off her relationship with Kamoshida, they glimmered with a light that Shiho hadn't seen in years. Her face was so pretty and Shiho found herself following Ann's lips and wondering how they would feel, probably really soft.

 

Going past her physical features, Ann was braver than Shiho would ever be Ann dressed how she wanted and was done with caring about what others thought of her, she had the wits that Shiho lacked and she had a unique appearance, someone like her would easily be able to make her way around the world. While Shiho saw herself as useless really, she was only really good at volleyball, she lacked the bravery that Ann had, she wasn't nearly as witty and her appearance wasn't anything to write home about.

 

Ann was quick in social situations, able to make friends wherever she went, Shiho was shy and was barely able to talk to strangers, it was a wonder the two of them ever got to be so close.

 

Though that did lead her thoughts to Arisato Minako, the second Arisato twin and the more upbeat of the two of them, plain in appearance and certainly not the sort of person who Shiho would consider to be socially adept, but when she was around, she always found a way to decrease the tension.

 

Shiho always wondered what Ann meant when she said that the brunette was teasing her, she wondered what the brunette said or texted to the blonde that made her blush so much.

 

Shiho knew she was going to have to have a conversation with the brunette, she knew something about Ann and Shiho was determined to find out what it was or at least get a hint about it.

**20/09/2018 - 12:00 - Shujin Academy - Suzui Shiho**

It was lunchtime and they were once again on the rooftop, one would think that the teachers would try to secure the place after Shiho came so close to jumping off there.

 

"Hey, Minako, could we talk for a bit?" Shiho asked, the brunette nodded and walked with Shiho to the corner of the roof that the dark haired girl had occupied for this lunchtime.

 

"What do you want to talk about?" Minako asked, sounding curious "Or do you want to confess something to me?" That did sound tempting, after all, she had a lot on her mind.

 

"Well, I've wanted to ask you..." Shiho began, now that she was talking to the brunette, it was harder than playing the conversation out in her head. "What do you keep texting Ann about?"

 

Minako laughed at that like actually laughed long and hard "I'm teasing her about her love life." Minako answered, still laughing a bit "her desolate wasteland of a love life."

 

"Does Ann like someone?" Shiho asked, narrowing it down, Minako looked rather amused at that one.

 

"In terms of platonically, sure, she likes a lot of people, in terms of romantically, well...." She looked like she was considering something "You're going to have to ask her yourself." She still looked amused, she then muttered something that Shiho was unable to hear. The brunette pulled out her phone and started texting someone

 

"What are-"

 

"I'm texting Ann, to see if she wants me to tell you." Minako answered, "It's her choice after all, though there is nothing so awkward and amusing as seeing her dance around her crush."

 

"What does she say?" Shiho asked as Minako looked at the pale screen, the last word that Minako said not really registering.

 

"She says that she'll talk about it in her own time." Minako answered, looking amused "Whatever, 'her own time' means, which I guess would be until the literal end of the world." Minako put her phone away and looked the dark-haired girl in the eye, "So why exactly are you asking me about this?"

 

"Well..." Shiho began, trying to think of the best way to phrase this one without openly revealing her secret. "Ann has someone on her mind doesn't she?"

 

"Yes, of course, she does. Back to the topic at hand." Minako answered her tone of voice spoke of annoyance.

 

"Can we please drop the subject?" Shiho asked, her voice was wavering, but the look on Minako's face said that she wasn't going to drop this topic easily.

 

"You know what? I'll let you tell me about this until the end of the month, after that, I'm more than happy to tell your secret to everyone." Minako said, her grin was like the devil's own.

 

"How do you know-"

 

"Come now, Shiho, it's obvious to everyone and there's no reason for you to worry. I gave similar terms to Ann." She said, her devilish grin was still on her face "One of you two are going to have to talk eventually."

 

Shiho thought on the brunette's words, was she really that obvious? "Talk about what?"

 

"Your secret, what else?" Minako

 

"Why are you doing this?"

 

"I have your best interests at heart, I may not look it, but I do care," Minako said, "though my method of caring is a bit different, I'll admit, but it's for the best." She paused "Most likely, either way, it's fun."

 

It was at this moment that she realised that Arisato Minako was most likely The Devil. Shiho walked back to the rest of the group with the brunette, who was still grinning like an idiot. Ann seemed to be blushing from the texts that were sent her way if only Shiho knew what was going on in there.

 

**20/04/2018 - 12:10 - Shujin Academy - Arisato Minako**

 

There was nothing more annoying than two people who were mutually pining, sure it was adorable and heart-warming/wretching in fiction, but in this case, it wasn't nearly as fun, sure watching them awkwardly dance around their feelings was fun, but, much like punching a small squirrel, it sort of gets boring after a while.

 

She didn't really intend to stay true to her threat, though the illusion of a deadline would expedite their inevitable confession to each other, hopefully. She could detect the resentment in Ann's and Shiho's glare, it was true that she was bluffing and she was glad that she told Ann over texts as she'd probably be able to call the bluff, hell it was a wonder that her bluff wasn't already called.

 

She pulled out her phone and texted both of them with the same words.

 

 **Ko:** Just talk to each other and I won't tell.

 

There was a feeling of being a bit evil by borderline blackmailing both the girls, they'd thank her later, it really wasn't healthy to be keeping secrets from your friends.

 

**20/04/2018 - 14:00 - Shujin Academy - Takamaki Ann**

 

Minako was evil, she probably did have good intentions, but she was still straight up evil.

 

Really, give her ten days to admit a secret that she had kept for years now. Ten days, there was no way in hell she'd be able to build up the courage for that one and there was certainly no way in hell that Shiho would do that as well.

 

What a conundrum, she was trying to keep this topic out of her head and focus on what the teacher was saying but the words didn't register with her, she'd have to ask Minato for a quick catch up lesson. Ann twirled her pen around in her hand and considered what Minako was saying.

 

She said that she had Ann's best interests at heart, well she had a funny way of showing it, she'd have to ask Minato about that if it was something that Minako usually did.

 

Ann tried to listen to the teacher about the English Language and the words still weren't registering, grammar rules that native English speakers wouldn't know or care about flew past her ears without making an impact, the pages of the book were blank and might as well have not existed.

 

What a wonderous situation.

**20/04/2018 - 16:00 - Tokyo Subway - Arisato Minako**

 

Minako was on her way to the cafe for her job interview, she made sure to get the earliest train she could get in order to make sure that she got there in time, her phone's GPS told her that the cafe was just a thirteen minute walk from the station, but she needed to be safe, also she could just kill some time surveying one of the many, many, many, many, many manga stores in the area.

 

The chords of 'Wiping All Out' played through her earphones and made the claustrophobic journey on the subway more bearable, admittedly, there weren't that many people on the subway to Akihabara at this time of day, though that was by Tokyo standards, to the standards of normal people, there was still a hell of a lot of people and some of them were making their way home through this line.

 

In her hands was her phone as she did some research on the cafe that she was working at, it had alright reviews, though an annoying factor was that most of them were written in English, she couldn't read English, she was conversational in the language, knew enough slang to talk to tourists but didn't know how to read the language, she could make use of Google translate but that was notoriously bad for translating. _Fun, fun, fun._

 

What reviews that were in a language she could actually read, the cafe was apparently, very meh, not all that bad, but not that good either.

**20/04/2018 - 16:30 - Akihabara - Arisato Minako**

 

Minako walked out of the subway station and breathed in heavily through her nose, it smelt like virginity and extreme nerdiness, in other words, exactly what she expected, not like she could talk, she was still a virgin but still.

 

She looked down at her phone, _Grey Cloud Cafe_ , it as to her left for about ten minutes and then right for another five minutes, God bless GPS because otherwise, she was sure that she'd be lost in the bright lights of the district, especially as she entered the more Otaku oriented area of the district. This was where the fun begins.

 

**20/04/2018 - 16:35 - Aoyama-Itchome - Arisato Minato**

 

Minato was a bit bothered, he wasn't really used to the idea of being separated from his sister, they were twins, the two pretty much did everything together, so it sort of felt a bit off, like he was missing the second half of his comedy routine or something similar.

 

He saw Ann walking up to him and shook his head to rid himself of a useless line of thought and looked at the blonde as she approached him.

 

"Minato, I've got a question." Ann began, he nodded at her and she continued "Does your sister regularly blackmail people into confessing their secrets?"

 

"Yes," Minato answered simply, it was a habit of his sister's and it was one of the ways she showed how much she cared. "It's her method of saying that while she cares for you, she'd rather it if you confessed what secret you're keeping." As he said that, a look of dread began to set in on the blonde's face. "So, what is your secret? Don't worry, I won't tell anyone about this, think of it as practice for actually confessing your secret."

 

"Well ... my s-secret?" Ann said, stuttering slightly, he shook her head and began again "Well ... my secret is that I care too much."

 

"Half-truth," Minato said, calling out what it was, "Narrow it down."

 

"It's about Shiho, I care about her too much," Ann said, her shoulders were slightly slumped in defeat.

 

"Close to the truth, but there's more," Minato said, his voice was apathetic and clinical as always, "Keep going."

 

"I'm in love with Shiho," Ann said, her shoulders further slumped, what a sight this must make for people from the outside, a blonde girl, shoulders slumped in defeat and a blue haired boy, grinning at this. Wait, he was grinning? he checked his face and confirmed that.

 

"There you go," Minato said, he did enjoy it when people confessed their secrets, there was something so satisfying about it. "Though it won't do you much good, I'm not the person who you should tell that to." It was true, Shiho had every right to know that Ann was in love with her.

 

"I don't want to ruin my friendship though," Ann said.

 

"You won't," Minato said, "If something so minor ruins your friendship, then she isn't that good a friend. I can tell from the outside that the two of you care for each other." Minato then mumbled, "It's really sweet."

**20/04/2018 - 17:10 - Shiho's House - Suzui Shiho**

 

Shiho was, once again, alone in her house, she rarely saw her parents nowadays, they always seemed to take on extra shifts, not that she minded, it did lead to an increase in her allowance, though it did mean that she was often unable to ask them for help

 

She took off her shoes as was proper and made her way to her room, slamming the door behind her, there was only really one thought that was in her head. "GODDAMN IT MINAKO!!" She screamed at the empty room, mostly to satisfy her own anger.

 

There was something about how Minako thought that her solution was clever, it would force Shiho to confess something that she kept secret for years, but that was the problem, she didn't really know how to confess her feelings.

 

Even without that, it was more than likely that she'd be ruining her friendship with the blonde by saying something like that. She has a snowflake's chance in hell of her feelings being accepting.

 

What was worse was that Minako was able to figure out her secret, was Shiho really being that obvious or was she bluffing, what if Ann had already figured out that Shiho was in love with the blonde.

 

She pulled her phone out of her pocket and looked at it, she looked at one of the photos she had taken and wondered how Ann managed to look so pretty, even the photo which was a pale copy of the real image and even then, her image was bewitching.

 

Shiho looked at the picture and saw her own image, she was younger then and it was before she was beaten by Kamoshida before Ann had to date that horrid man if memory served, it was after they were accepted into Shujin Academy.

 

Shiho imagined her and Ann in a similar situation, they'd be happy together, living together, seeing each other at their best and worst, maybe they'd argue but then make up afterwards. She sighed, why was she thinking about what the goddamn wedding and domestic life would be like when she had a bigger fish to fry and more pressing as Minako did have a deadline for her.

 

She got up and went to her Kotatsu, it’s time to do something that she hadn't done in a few months, write a love letter, she'd pour all those feelings that she was scared to say in person on to the paper.

**20/04/2018 - 18:00 - Akihabara - Arisato Minako**

 

If there was one thing that Minako was annoyed by, it was that after the interview she was unaware of whether or not she'd be getting the job, of course, this then meant that she didn't know if she had disposable income.

 

This, of course, meant that she shouldn't be carrying all the manga that she had just impulse bought, she wouldn't be complaining for a while. It was to her disappointment that she couldn't buy some anime but she didn't have a DVD player and a TV so she could hardly spend a few days in and she did have something better to do than binge-watching anime.

 

Her manga was either stuffed into her school book bag and various blazer pockets, thank god she usually never put anything in there, though she did look like the average Yaoi Fangirl, up until the moment that you looked at the cover of the manga and then one would realise where her tastes lay.

 

She checked her phone and realised that she was running far behind schedule, she was supposed to be home by now, as such, she began to furiously powerwalk towards the Subway Station and get on the first train home.

**20/04/2018 - 18:30 - Tokyo Subway - Arisato Minako**

 

Minako Arisato was on her train home and she decided, that since no one was really going to be paying attention to her, that she'd read some of her manga. The manga itself was familiar and she had bought this volume before but it was likely that her uncle had burned the thing so they wouldn't be getting it back anytime soon.

_"Look at her."_

_"You mean the girl over there?"_

_"What's that she's reading?"_

_"I think that's Yuri"_

_"What's this country coming to?"_

_"Girls shouldn't be reading such filth."_

Minako felt sick in her stomach when she heard the gossiping of what looked like a group of office workers, it was obvious that they were talking about her, this was because there was hardly anybody else on the subway who was a girl and reading Yuri.

_"You think she heard us?"_

_"Of course she did, look at how_

_she's retreating into the book."_

_"When I was a kid, we never thought_

_about something so filthy."_

Minako reached for her earphones and put them in her ears, then she reached for her phone and ignored the fact that her ears were blurring slightly from being insulted.

 

The song she was playing was somewhat ironic as it was called "Way of Life" it would be amusing if she wasn't trying to block out the gossiping of people who clearly disapproved of her tastes.

 

She wondered if this was how Ann and Shiho felt when she had blackmailed them earlier today, thinking about it, she put her manga away and pulled out her phone and her fingers moved along the on-screen keyboard.

 

 **[Ko]** has created chat **[Aplogy]**

 **[Suzui]** has been added to **[Aplogy]**

 **[Ann]** has been added to **[Aplogy]**

 **Ko:** Ann, Shiho, forget about the deadline

 **Suzui:** WTF is this?

 **Ann:** What's the catch?

 **Ko:** No catch. I realised my mistake and I apologise, you may tell each other what you wanted to.

 **[Ko]** has left **[Aplogy]**

 

She put her phone away, her method of forcing people to confess was a terrible idea. She did have some idea of it before, but to her, the successes of it usually outranked the cost, but this time, she realised that she could very well screw up any chance of the two girls being happy, and to be honest, these girls needed their happiness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I figured that I might as well increase the speed of the Ann/Shiho part of the story as I really like their relationship, though I am getting into my less familiar territory of writing romance. Hence why most of this chapter focused on self-doubt and Minako being a bit evil.
> 
> I figured Minako would apologise after realising that she's basically forcing two girls to out themselves and what that would cause for both of them.
> 
> As always, I am begging you to please Comment, leave a kudos (If you haven't already), anything to give me a hint of how the story is coming along. Hell, I'll happily take people telling me that my writing sucks and that I'm illiterate.
> 
> Also, sorry for the slowish update, getting back to school and it's getting close to exam season, so I'm trying to juggle this with schoolwork in order to make sure that I don't lose interest.
> 
> 24/02/2018 EDIT: Added the ending to the final sentence.


	13. The Investigation Begins in True

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While it is not guaranteed to happen every day, eventually progress is always made. Sometimes, it is for the better, sometimes it is for the worse, either way, this tends to happen when an investigation truly begins.

**21/04/2018 - 05:55 - Shiho's House - Suzui Shiho**

Shiho was getting dressed in her uniform, she paused slightly to look at the bruises on her wrist, despite what she initially thought, they were starting to fade slightly, eventually, they might not even be noticeable, the thought made her smile slightly.

 

Her phone vibrated and she ignored it as she continued to get dressed, the phone started to vibrate more violently and as she put on her pullover, she picked up her phone. It was the Kamoshida Investigation Chat

 

 **Min:** We'll be meeting with Ikki-kun after school today

 **Ko:** In addition, we'll be using Makoto to present evidence to Kawakami, she's the most likely to believe us.

 **Makoto:** How so?

 **Ko:** She's generally seen as caring about the students

 **Min:** She's also one of the few teachers who doesn't hate us on principle

 **Ko:** According to the rumour mill, she has also expressed concern over the physical condition of the students.

 **Min:** Even if we initially don't get her on our side, we just need the idea that Kamoshida is doing something horrid.

 **Ko:** We just need to make her curious or realise that Kamoshida is not the hardworking teacher he pretends to be.

 

The thought was manipulative but it was correct, Kamoshida was horrid, they just needed to open the people's eyes to the truth.

 

 **Min:** Just to be clear, we'll not be all there for the Ikki-kun interview, we just need Makoto to record the interview.

 **Ko:** Attendance to is optional

 **Shizu:** About the Kawakami talk?

 **Min:** Plans call for Makoto, me, Minako and Ann at the minimum

 **Ko:** I and Minato have the valuable testimony.

 **Ann:** I still have all the texts from Kamoshida and all the logs of conversations from him

 **Makoto:** And I'm the one who is actually believable.

 

Shiho smiled at Makoto's witty comment and felt somewhat hurt at the fact that it was true.

 

 **Min:** Besides we're all in one of her classes, she can call us in to check out our stories and bruises, if necessary.

 

That wasn't as good, while most of the gang did know what happened to Shiho, she didn't want knowledge of it becoming widespread, the school wouldn't stop talking about it.

 

 **Shizu:** I'll be with you for talking to Kawakami

 

Goddammit, why'd she type that? Why'd her fingers do that and not what she wanted to do?

 

This was going to be a long day, wasn't it?

**21/04/2018 - 7:30 - Shujin Academy - Arisato Minato**

 

Minato stepped into school and one of the first things he noticed was the sharp glare that he was getting from Ikki-kun, a glare that he pretended he didn't notice as he swapped in his shoes for school slippers.

 

As he slid his shoe slippers on, the third-year walked up to Minato and gave the boy exactly two seconds to notice that slight difference in height between the two, Ikki-kun was a head taller than Minato, who tried not to notice the cologne that the, rather attractive, third-year wore.

 

"Why'd you slip that note into my locker yesterday?" Ikki said, his tone was inquisitive and laced with anger.

 

"What note?" Minato said, looking around, "we could talk about this on the rooftop."

 

"No, we talk about this now." He said, jabbing a finger at Minato, "So I ask again, why'd you leave the letter in my locker?"

 

"I'm just the messenger." Minato said, shrugging his shoulder slightly as he readjusted his stance "Niijima-senpai asked that I deliver the note to your locker, ask her about it after school." He answered, there was no point lying

 

"How do I know you're telling the truth?" He asked, jabbing his finger again

 

"What reason do I have to lie?" Minato said, shrugging. "The letter is from Nijima-senpai, my handwriting isn't nearly as good as hers."

 

"What was it about a meeting?" Ikki-kun (what was his real name?) asked

 

"I trust you read the note, if so, then I don't have to explain this one to you." Minato answered, "I'd appreciate if you move on, we're gathering a crowd, Senapi." He slipped out and made his way to homeroom, leaving Ikki-kun behind, looking a bit annoyed.

**21/04/2018 - 7:40 - Shujin Academy - Suzui Shiho**

 

Shiho was glad for one reason because Minako made some random example of mercy, she was able to still keep her secret which was something that she never thought that she'd be able to do. Because of that, she was able to still just live as Ann's best friend and Ann won't be disgusted by Shiho's feelings because she'll never learn of them, it was a guaranteed success.

 

She looked at the clock and saw the time, there were just over two hours left until the talk with the school's most exhausted teacher.

 

She looked up and saw her homeroom teacher, Ushimaru, enter the room, she sighed and swore to herself that someday she'd find it in herself to tell Ushimaru what she really thought of him and his traditional values. Though she knew that today was not one of those days.

**21/04/2018 - 12:15 - Shujin Academy - Arisato Minato**

 

Minato had gathered some of 'the squad' as he as mentally dubbed them, consisting of himself, Ann, Makoto, Minako and Shiho, who looked rather tired.

 

Kawakami was still packing her teaching materials in her dull yellow ring binder, looked just as tired as she always did. There were heavily visible bags under eyes, no amount of make-up covered those bags.

 

"Kawakami-sensei?" Minato began, getting his teacher's attention "We've got a few things to tell you." Kawakami sighed, while her eyes were not full of the usual hatred that teachers had for him, but she clearly did not want to be here.

 

"What is it about?" Kawakami asked, at this point, Minato was sure it was hard to find one part of the teacher in front of him that wasn't tired. Minato pulled out his Kamoshida Investigation Folder

 

"It's about Kamoshida and all the things he's done," Minato said, his voice was steely and he knew that he would have to be in order to make sure that the teacher believed him.

**21/04/2018 - 12:30 - Shujin Academy - Kawakami Sadayo**

 

Sadayo was not entirely sure what to think of what all these students had told her, a large part of her wanted to say that it was a lie, a well-constructed lie that had part of the truth behind it as well.

 

But on the other hand, it made sense, every single female student avoided Kamoshida like he had the plague and she always felt uncomfortable around the man. It also perfectly explained why every member of the volleyball team walked around with limps or obvious bruises and worse yet, some of them had broken noses, a good example would be Ikko-san (who nowadays went by 'Ikki-kun') or Sakamoto-san with his broken leg.

 

Then there was what was done to Suzui-san, no parent should have to find out about _that_ and it does explain why she was seemingly so intent on jumping off the roof of the school.

 

Though there was something that didn't make sense, it was why they hadn't taken it to the police. "Why haven't you taken this to the police?" Sadayo asked, her voice was somewhat inquisitive and, as always, showed just how exhausted she was.

 

Nijima Makoto answered that one "It would be heavily likely that all the evidence can be waved off by Kamoshida-'sensei' as a few students with a grudge against their 'hard-working teacher'," Makoto answered, there were heavy traces of sarcasm in her voice at the word Sensei and the last few words she said. "in addition, not many of the students want to talk out of fear of Kamoshida so....."

 

"You want me to do the questioning of some students," Sadayo answered, she could see the logic, it was just that she wasn't entirely sure when she'd get the time to...

 

Wait, why exactly was she thinking about the inconvenience of this? It certainly wasn't convenience that led her to help that boy, it was wanting to help her students. She saw all the students with bruises and looking like they were dead on their feet. It just begged the question of when did she stop caring?

 

The worst thing was: she couldn't remember when she stopped caring.

 

"Yes, that is the short and long of it," Minako said, her voice was somewhat uplifting despite the tone of the conversation, "So what do you say?"

 

Sadayo pulled out her phone and called her other employer, holding up a finger to indicate that the students should be quiet "Hello, yes it's me." She said into the phone.

 

"Kawakami-san, why are you calling?" The voice of the receptionist said, sounding a bit confused.

 

"Sorry to bother you, but something came up, could you possibly move my shift over towards Saturday?" Sadayo said the receptionist made some noises that sounded like she was about to voice a complaint "It's a family emergency."

 

"Of course," The receptionist said, "I'll call you back to when if the change is approved." what followed was the dial tone as the receptionist evidentially hung up on her.

 

Sadayo put her phone away and looked at the students, they looked at her with a mixture of understanding at the thought of their teacher having a second job "Sorry about that, I'll be happy to help you."

 

It was hard not to notice the expression of unadulterated joy on Minako's face, an expression that spread to Takamaki's and Suzui's faces as well as realisation seemed to set in.

**21/04/2018 - 13:00 - Shujin Academy - Arisato Minako**

 

Minako was far too pleased with herself like she knew that she should tone it down a notch, but to be honest, this was some of the best news she had heard all year.

 

They had a teacher who was a reputable source on their side.

 

To be honest, Minako knew that something was likely to happen that would spoil her mood but for now she was riding that positive emotion.

 

Unfortunately, all good things must come to end and this was no exception, Ushimaru walked into the room, looking rather annoyed, more annoyed than usual.

 

There went her mood.

 

**21/04/2018 - 15:30 - Shujin Academy - Niijima Makoto**

 

It was time for the meeting with Ikki-kun, Makoto had her phone at the ready to do an audio recording of the entire process. She was currently sitting down at one of the old chairs that were on the roof and she had one prepared for Ikki as well.

 

When the boy eventually walked up the steps, he turned and looked somewhat surprised that Makoto was there.

 

"Glad to see you got the note." She said, trying to break the ice

 

"I did, I'm just curious as to why it asked for you to meet me on the rooftop and why you asked Arisato-san to deliver it," Ikki responded, despite the fact that the man looked like an idiot or a rich brat, he was one of the smartest people in the school, though that was hampered by his own laziness. He sat down in the other chair, taking up what could be considered as a neutral position, as he leant forward slightly.

 

"Where else could we talk in this school without word reaching Kamoshida?" She supplied

 

"Good point."

 

"As for using Minato-san, he was willing to do so," Makoto answered, it wasn't technically a lie, he was less willing than his sister, but she required subtly and Minako was not subtle.

 

"Okay." Ikki said, "So what did you want to talk about?" He asked

 

"Your injuries." As soon as Makoto said the words, Ikki's face hardened and it was clear that he didn't want to talk.

 

"Why?"

 

"I'm building a case against Kamoshida." Makoto supplied, making sure not to make reference to the fact that she had assistance. "And I need more confessions, don't bother lying to me as well, I can tell you look like someone hit you in the face with a baseball bat." Ikki looked like he was considering this.

 

"Not a word of this reaches Kamoshida?" He asked, sounding slightly scared and looking around, possibly for Mishima who was well known as Kamoshida's pet snitch

 

"Not a word," Makoto replied, the meaning was clear. Ikki looked rather relieved at that and stopped leaning forward in his chair and instead leaned back in his chair. "But I am going to need to record what you say, it'll be used as evidence," Makoto added, the news didn't seem to annoy Ikki at all, instead he seemed rather pleased at the news and when Makoto made an obvious show of recording he began speaking.

 

"So... my injuries, oh where to begin?" He sighed "A good start would be in my first year, he used to beat us for any minor mistake, you messed up a spike, beating, tripped, beating, got hit in the face, beating, stepped out of line, beating. I think you get the drift by now, I was pretty shit at Volleyball at that time, so I often went home limping with plenty of bruises on my face."

 

"What about your parents?" Makoto asked it made no sense that they wouldn't catch on.

 

"Oh them, they noticed after a week when Kamoshida ran out of wrist and leg to bruise and went for the face. I remember my mother asked me who did it to me, I did the only thing I could think of," He paused, recalling what he said, "I told her the truth, she didn't believe me and told me to go to my room for badmouthing a teacher." He muttered something under his breath "Despite that, I still went to Volleyball club, it was one of the few things in the school that would help a student who wasn't all that good in their academics. By my second year, I was a damn sight better at Volleyball, though this was mostly through trial and error, I quickly learned from my mistakes in order to minimise the number of bruises I would get, the year really passed uneventfully, my mother was shaking her head at how her boy, who she thought was a delinquent, was still part of the school's volleyball team that went all the way to the Nationals. The only real source of interest was at the end of the year when I got my nose broken."

 

"How was it broken?"

 

"You want to know, well, basically Kamoshida was really angry that day and decided to vent his frustrations while demonstrating how to throw a spike, three guesses where it landed." He paused for effect "It hit me right in the nose with the force of an angry god and shattered my nose. At this point, my mother asked me again about my injuries and I told her that it happened during Volleyball, not a lie but not entirely true as well, I had learned my lesson from last time, she wouldn't believe me if I told her the truth."

 

"And why did you quit the team?"

 

"It's simple really, I heard that Suzui-san was called into Kamoshida's office and well, he was very tense that day. I didn't know what happened to her, but after she was going to jump I did hear the rumours. I was disgusted by Kamoshida, my view of the man worsened even more and I quit the team." He paused a second "That is the short and long of it."

 

Makoto stopped the recording and played back part of it, the sound came out clearly and she looked satisfied "That is really good, thank you Ikki-kun." She stood up from her seat and put the phone into one of the pockets in her waistcoat and began reaching for her blazer.

 

"I wish you luck." Ikki said, "I mean that in all honesty."

 

"Well thank you, I wish you luck as well," Makoto replied

 

**21/04/2018 - 16:20 - Diner - Arisato Minako**

 

Minako had been dragged into a familiar diner by a very annoyed looking Ann.

 

Well, to say that she was annoyed was something of an understatement, she looked livid, though she put on a polite face long enough to get herself a flat white, Minako just ordered a coke using some of the money her brother had lent her.

 

Minako had a good suspicion about what Ann was going to talk to her about. "So what the hell is going on? You blackmail me and then call it off on the same day?" Yep, she totally was

 

"I initially wanted to help, however, I then realised that my attempts to help would have caused more harm than good, to both you and Shiho," Minako answered, trying to keep her voice neutral, she did feel guilty about what she did.

 

"So why did you try to blackmail me?" Ann asked

 

"I thought you asked my brother about this," Minako said, she had heard as much from her brother

 

"I have, but I want to know what you think," Ann said, taking a small sip of her coffee

 

"Well... I notice that often people are hiding secrets that they shouldn't be or holding back saying things that they would regret not saying earlier, I often try to give them a push, I never actually intended on delivering on my threats, it was just a case of the illusion of a deadline, it would encourage people to expedite the process."

 

"So it was basically manipulation." Ann summarised, her face hardening

 

"Yes," Minako confirmed, there were no two ways around it "Though later I realised that I was basically forcing you and Shiho to out yourselves." Minako provided, not noticing her slip

 

"Wait, what was that you said?" Ann asked, hearing something of interest.

 

"I was basically forcing you to out yourself." Minako corrected, trying to cover up her mistake.

 

"You mentioned Shiho," Ann said

 

"Yes," Minako replied, there was no hiding it, while Ann was sometimes oblivious to some things, she had noticed Minako's slip up

 

"Is Shiho gay?" Ann asked,

 

"I'm sorry, you didn't notice that?" Minako said, her voice was incredulous "I noticed that from looking at the both of you." Ann's face went red as she thought through every interaction with Shiho in a different light. "However, in the interest of keeping things fair, I will tell Shiho that you're gay."

 

"Wait, why are you doing that?"

 

"Shiho would probably be wondering what the hell is up when you start flirting with the knowledge that she does swing that way," Minako explained, "She'd probably want to know, she's been feeling down lately and I think that information is what she needs to lighten her mood." Without waiting for Ann's response, the brunette took out her phone and her fingers flew over the on-screen keyboard with precision

 

 **Ko:** Ann's gay

 **Shuzi:** What?

 **Ko:** Takamaki Ann likes girls.

 **Ko:** Just thought you should know, she's already figured out how you swing.

 

Minako put her phone away and tried to ignore the fact that she was sporting a shit-eating grin. Today was a good day.

 

**21/04/2018 - 17:00 - Shiho's House - Suzui Shiho**

Shiho was wondering what the hell was going on. First, she was blackmailed by Minako, then the brunette called the blackmail off, then the brunette told her that Shiho's secret was spilt to the one person that she never wanted to know about it and that the blonde felt the same way.

 

In short, it seemed to be a strange day. Shiho walked into her house when she smelt something weird, a scent that was coming from the kitchen.

 

She followed the familiar scent and saw that her mother was home. Shiho blinked and rubbed her eyes to make sure that she was seeing things correctly and yes her parents were in the house.

 

Shiho almost forgot about what misery there was in her life, this was a really good thing that had happened to her, but she was wondering what had brought this about.

 

"Hello mom, I'm home," Shiho said, her voice was full of joy and a small amount of contentment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here I am again and once again, I beg all of you to leave me a comment and give me your thoughts on what I vomit up on to the internet.
> 
> Your thoughts are what feeds me.


	14. Paint the Town Blue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes, whether you like it or not, things go your way, sometimes everything turns up you so much that it seems that taking joy in this is similar to insulting Murphy's mother. Though it is always a good thing when something goes your way.

**22/04/2018 - 6:20 - Shibuya Station - Arisato Minako**

 

Minako and Minato were waiting at the subway for their train, both of them looked quite bored and occupied themselves with two different activities.

 

Minato was playing a, rather old school, JRPG on his phone, his earphones on, drowning out the game's BGM with his own music.

 

While Minako spent some time reading that volume of Manga that she had bought two days ago, taking some joy in the fact that her favourite characters were happy and having fun, oh if only her life was like that, full of cute girls with generally happy times ensuing for everyone involved. She wondered if what she did concerning the relationship between Ann and Shiho was the right thing and if it would help her.

 

When she thought about that, she often thought of what one of her many uncles and aunts would have said, in this case, she thought of Aunty Kikai, a rather quiet and demure old woman who never married, she adores relationships no matter who or what the participants were, just as long as they consenting, this was what Minako thought of as the voice of reason for most relationships, while for the voice of tradition for relationships was the voice of her Uncle Shizi, a rather stern and traditional man who had openly voiced his disapproval at what Minako often read (yuri) and seemed like the textbook example of the Unreasonable Asian Father (all grades must be perfect for his approval, in the top ten of the class was the minimum for him to acknowledge your existance), if she was to ask him, he would say something along the lines of how what they had wasn't a real relationship and was just a disgusting affair or something similar, while Kikai would probably say that it was so sweet that young love was still blooming and that they should be happy for eachother, in most cases, Minako would side with Kikai.

 

She felt her phone vibrate in her breast pocket and pulled it out, it seemed that she had some texts from Ann

 

 **Ann:** Why'd you tell Shiho

 **Ann:** She texted me this morning asking if what was said was true

 **Ann:** It's going to be so awkward talking to her now

 

Minako looked down and noticed that Shiho was also texting her

 

 **Shizu:** I asked Ann about what you told me and she still hasn't replied yet

 **Shizu:** I'm worried that she's mad at me

 

She looked down at her phone and considered what to do, there was some element of annoyance when she looked at the two girls' texts, why'd they go to her? She certainly wasn't an expert in relationships.

 

"Excuse me, miss?" A voice said, Minako turned around and saw something that she'd never thought she'd see, a teenager, in 2018, with a mullet, like a full-on mullet. It took every effort she could find to not laugh in this teenager's face. "You were glaring at your phone quite a bit. Is something wrong?" The teenager's voice was certainly smooth and when he talked, she swore she could see a few girls swoon, though this boy did look familiar, not that she could place where from though.

 

"No nothing's really wrong," Minako said, waving off the boy, the more she looked at the boy, the more familiar he seemed to be "Do I know you from somewhere?" She asked this was a question that needed to be answered.

 

"From your fantasies, perhaps?" He said, she could hear his eyebrows wiggling at that and she resisted the urge to headbutt the boy where he stood. She assumed that he could tell how thoroughly unimpressed she was at that line "I'm kidding, probably from my TV appearance, the one concerning the judicial system and the understaffing of the police." Oh yeah, that one, oh she was going to have words with this boy

 

"Oh yeah, you're that junior detective, the one some are calling the Second Detective Prince, though the people who are more dramatic are calling you the Japanese Sherlock Holmes," Minako supplied, this was the boy, Akechi Goro, the boy who apparently had a sharp intellect, a silver tongue and rapier wit. "Akechi-san,"

 

"That's my name, please, be sure to take care of me." He said, finishing the typical greeting with a bow and she could have sworn that he just winked at her. She could see the fangirls swooning, she could also feel the angry glares from some girls as they spotted him talking with a girl who wasn't them and she could hear their lies that were being weaved by the second, it said something about where her life was that she was used to such things happening to her.

 

"I'm Arisato Minako, it's a pleasure to meet you." She introduced herself, pretending not to notice that Akechi's eyes lit up with understanding "I think we should cut this conversation short as it seems this conversation has drawn the attention of your fan club." She added, directing her glance specifically at one of the fangirls, who she recognised as Eiko-senpai. He looked around and saw that there was a collection of school girls and middle-aged women who were glaring at him.

 

"I see," Akechi said, his eyes darkening when he saw some of the older (middle-aged) fangirls "I won't keep you any longer," He backed off and went his way, only some of the glares from the Akechi fan club had lifted.

 

_Welp, there's a new rumour, that she's dating the Japanese Sherlock Holmes_

**22/04/2018 - 6:30 - Shibuya Station - Akechi Goro**

 

So that was the illustrious Arisato Minako, for someone who was convicted, she was surprisingly agreeable, though she brushed off a pick-up line that he had used to make many girls swoon over him, he often wondered how some fell for such a cheesy line, probably wanting to be connected with a famous person, but that was not his main concern.

 

His main concern was the girl who he had just met, almost as tall as him, striking red eyes like his as well, with a gaze that seemed to flicker around the room as it took notice of everything around her. When angry, her face contorted into something that would make the Devil shiver, while when happy, she looked rather pleasant, if a bit plain. When he talked to her, he could almost see her put on a mask which looked like a polite smile, this mask only really broke when the judiciary was mentioned. So that was a sore subject, though that was to be expected.

 

Though what was worrying was the fact that he couldn't find the other twin, though chances are the two would be close by, though he was slightly annoyed by the fact that Makoto hadn't updated him on the school situation.

**22/04/2018 - 7:30 - Shujin Academy - Kawakami Sadayo**

 

Sadayo was interviewing one of the first-year students about Kamoshida, her smartphone was doing a video recording of the interview.

 

"Wait, does any of this reach Kamoshida?" the first-year, a boy called Kita Takao, asked after answering all of Sadayo's questions.

 

"No, I'll try to make sure that you won't be punished for coming forward." She answered, reassuring the boy. The boy himself had black hair, combed into a small fringe that went right, his face was lightly bruised, though he had shown off the bruises on his arm and they were not pretty, she couldn't understand how Kamoshida thought he could beat students this much, though he had been able to get a tenure for his position at the school, which meant that he was able to get away with it for years at least, though then again, if you bring presitge to the school on a consistent basis, you basically get a tenure.

 

"Oh thank god," The boy said, rubbing his left wrist, "Is there anything else you need to know Kawakami-sensei?"

 

"No, that'll be all," Sadayo said, watching the boy leave the room, quickly.

 

Sadayo wrote down the last of the details and turned off her phone's camera, interviewing a student was way more stressful than she thought and she dressed up as a maid for a second job.

 

She sighed as she turned off the phone's camera, she put the last of her notes into a small brown folder that she hid inside her yellow ring binder. She looked at her desk and took a final chug of her morning coffee (took with a cream and five sugars) and ignored the fact that it was lukewarm at this point, she still needed her caffeine to make it through the day, lukewarm coffee or not. The clock on one of the walls of the office told her that Homeroom was beginning.

 

Sadayo got out of her chair, smoothed out her clothes and went over to her classroom, hugging the ring binder and by extension, her interview notes, close to her chest, hopefully, what she was providing would prove useful to getting Kamoshida put behind bars.

**22/04/2018 - 8:40 - Shujin Academy - Arisato Minako**

Minako was listening to another lecture from Ushimaru-sensei, she swore that if she had to hear another talk about the moral fibre of the country, she was not going to be held responsible for her actions, though that would be an interesting headline: 'Teacher stabbed by a student because "He deserved it"'

 

Nah, probably not the best idea, despite how tempting it would be, that and he'd actually then have a point.

 

"Now some of you believe that there are issues surrounding Japanese Society today," Ushimaru said, his voice was somewhat condescending though he was taking a break from his normal method, so Minako was willing to be talked down to as long as she didn't have to listen to more waffle "Would any of you want to give an example?" Minako wanted to say something about the criminal justice system or hell, anything. But another student beat her to the punch.

 

"What about Gay Marriage?" A random student said, she looked to see who volunteered the answer and it was, Mishima, oddly enough, had to give some respect for the little snitch, he looked rather nervous as he realised that people had, in fact, heard him speak up. There was not a word to describe how disappointed Ushimaru looked, there was also a mixture of annoyance in his look.

 

"Kids these days..." He said to himself, his hand on his face. "Alright kids, and listen up and listen good. This sort of perversion that is common in the west and is destroying our culture should not be treated like its an actual relationship, mostly because it is not." Oh goody, he was one of those people. Minako tried to ignore the fact that those words sounded like a personal insult. "All of you need to know that relationships like that are Class-S relations for a reason, they are to be abandoned by the time you enter high school. Any exceptions to this are immature and need to grow up." Minako could see Ann's hands clench into fists, though Minako couldn't talk, her hands were also clenching and she did what she normally did when this topic was brought up, put on a polite smile and keep silent. She felt an even stronger urge to stab Ushimaru, she looked over at her brother and saw that his fists were slightly clenched, there were few things that pissed him off, but one of them was being called immature.

 

Minako could hardly fault her teacher, he was transparent about the fact that he was a traditionalist, she wasn't entirely sure what she was expecting.

**22/04/2018 - 8:42 - Shjin Academy - Takamaki Ann**

Ann did not need to hear Ushimaru's lecture, she was used to hearing such comments, she had heard such when Kamoshida had to pause her dates to talk with his friends over the phone, she had heard such opinions from more than a few older men and women, though it also seemed to be related to her appearance as well, apparently her part-American origins made her _'easy'_ or a _'degenerate'_ among other things.

 

She was pissed off and she knew this really well, even Minako's teasing was good natured and it was clear that the girl had no genuine malice behind it.

 

"Minako-san," Ushimaru said, getting the attention of the brunette. "You look like you want to contribute something to the discussion."

 

"If it's alright by you, sir, I'd like to not say anything," Minako said, Ann was surprised, she could hear the barely restrained anger in Minako's voice, Ushimaru did not look that impressed

 

"Nonsense, I think it's important for all voices to state their opinion," He said, though based off his open disdain for Minako, it felt wrong for him to say that it was like Kamoshida being a decent person, it just felt wrong.

 

"If you insist," Minako said, her voice was laced with reluctance "Shall I be a good machine and spout the opinion you want me to say or shall I give my honest opinion?" Minako asked, her voice was very jokey though Ann could hear the glare that the brunette was giving her teacher and could feel the murderous intent radiating off the teacher.

**22/04/2018 - 12:50 - Shujin Academy - Arisato Minako**

 

Minako's forehead hurt like a bitch, it turns out giving the infamous 'Wielder of the Death Chalk' sass was a bad idea and there was now a massive bruise on her forehead as he just pelted her with a stick of chalk so hard that she didn't give her opinion, as he was readying another piece of chalk.

 

So there was that matter, but more importantly, there was also the matter of the Kamoshida case.

 

"So Minako..." Ann began, her voice mischievous "what was your opinion on the subject?" Ann didn't have to say what the subject was because she knew what Ann was referring to, unfortunately.

 

Minako began to quickly consider her options, would she out herself or would she pretend to just be an ally? She began fiddling with a pen that she had in one of her pockets. That was until Ann noticed the cover of the manga that was in one of Minako's blazer pockets

 

"Minako, is, is this Yuri?" Ann asked, her voice putting on a faux-scandalous tone, "who've guessed?" She giggled "Who've thought you'd be such a fan of Morinaga Milk?" Minako felt the urge to punch Ann in the face "I guess this means that-" Minako cut the blonde

 

"Yes, I'm gay and yes, I support Gay Marriage," Minako said, her cheeks were red and she honestly wished that the earth would open up and swallow her whole, this was not her ideal scenario "can we please drop the issue?"

 

Ann seemed to get the message and awkwardly apologised for her questions, realising that it was a sore subject for Minako,

 

It was at this time, Makoto arrived at the rooftop, looking surprisingly pleased "I just talked with Kawakami-sensei," She began "We might actually have enough to press the issue with the police,"

 

"You mean like an anonymous tip?" Ryuji asked, sounding somewhat confused,

 

"Something like that, if all else fails, I can get my sister to pull some strings and get an investigation on him," Makoto said, the mention of her connections, though then again Makoto was definitely the kind of person who would hate using family connections.

 

"So that leaves the question...." Minako began

 

"Should we actually press the case now?" Minato finished, he seemed to be mulling it over in his head, "we should press it," he said.

 

"Do you think they'll believe us?" Ann said, it was true, they were just a bunch of school children.

 

"That's why we'll ask Kawakami to do it,"  Minako provided "While we are schoolchildren, she can actually provide an explanation and be respected," She said the last words with a grimace, it was true after all, they wouldn't even take them seriously unless they had good video evidence against him and even then it was unlikely anything would come of it.

 

What a shit situation, though due to the fact that they had a teacher on their side, suddenly, the situation was immediately better, it was understandable, so that way teachers who were simply unpopular wouldn't be investigated because of it, after all, no one liked Ushimaru, but he wasn't a bad person.

**22/04/2018 - 15:20 - Shibuya Station - Arisato Minako**

 

Minako was just leaving the subway, somewhat satisfied by the fact that the Kamoshida incident was going to be over when suddenly, her phone started vibrating, she quickly brought it up to her ear and answered it. "Minako speaking," she said into her phone pleasantly.

 

"Hi, Arisato-san, it's about your job application to _Grey Cloud Cafe_." The voice of the American receptionist spoke, Minako felt some nervousness sink into her as she heard the receptionist speak. "After a short period of shortlisting, we've decided to employ you on a part-time basis." The voice said and Minako could've sworn that the world just got a little bit brighter, yes finally, income a job.

 

But then it was curbed by her realising that she never really intended to get this job. Ignoring that minor road bump, "Thank you, when do I start?" she asked, despite the fact that she never really wanted this job, she was still pleased to get an income, this would mean that she wouldn't be as reliant on her brother lending her money as she normally was.

 

"I think we've got an empty slot on Saturday, about 5 PM," The receptionist said, this was followed by the sound of her asking someone else about the time, before she then spoke again "Yeah, Saturday 5 PM,"

 

"Thank you," Minako said, her voice was proud

 

"No problem, just be sure to be there on Saturday," The receptionist said

 

"I will, goodbye."

 

"Bye." The receptionist said. This was followed by the dial tone and Minako felt her chest swell with such pride that she almost ignored the look that her brother was giving her, she then put her phone away and ran after her brother who gave her a look that said 'Move it, gotta get on the train'

**22/04/2018 - 16:00 - Niijima Sisters' Flat - Nijima Makoto**

 

Makoto was studying in her room, or at least, trying to study, there was a massive problem with trying to do that these days and that was the small fact that the Kamoshida case filled her waking thoughts, she wouldn't mind the thought of bringing a repulsive man to justice so much if it wasn't for the fact that exams were coming up and she would need to make sure that her grades were consistent.

 

She was sitting at her desk, empty notebook in front of her, open history (one of her weaker subjects) book in front of her, kept at a roughly 45-degree angle by a stack of textbooks she had behind it. A ballpoint pen was in her hand and despite all that she wanted to do, she couldn't focus on the words of the textbook, as such, she couldn't even begin trying to decipher the useful information from the textbook's waffle.

 

She slouched in her chair, allowing her honour student act to drop for a minute, while it was satisfying, actually trying to help out the school, she knew that it might actually affect her future prospects, it was a trade-off and the decision made always told you something about the person. She wondered what her sister would do in this situation.

 

She sighed heavily and looked back at the textbook, the words looked somewhat clearer, she began writing down what she could while she could still focus.

**22/04/2018 - 18:00 - Cafe Leblanc - Arisato Minato**

 

Minato was angry, well that wasn't entirely accurate, he didn't really like to consider himself angry, such a disposition often clouded one's judgement.

 

A more accurate description would be calm with some rage shimmering underneath, he wanted to deck Ushimaru after his talk about gay people and some of the anger from that was felt throughout the day and it annoyed him, not only was he called immature, but that it happened so early in the day that it soured his mood for the rest of the day.

 

Though that was not to say that there weren't good things about the situation as well. For starters, they had enough evidence to build a decent-enough case on, they could probably actually give some defence attornies a run for their money with the testimonies, so that did mean that the police should be receiving a tip-off that one Kamoshida Suguru was not nearly as good as the world believed him to be.

 

A second good thing was that his sister got accepted for her job, which meant two things, one was that she could stop borrowing money from him (though he doubted he was ever going to given that money back), a second was that he had teasing ammo against his sister. A third point, which sounded minor, but did wonders for his mood was that it improved her mood, she was the sort of person who always tried to seem happy and Minato had spent most of his life looking at that fake smile of hers, though when she gave a genuine smile, it shone like the sun and it genuinely did improve his mood, though he tended to get happy as a result of everyone else's happiness.

 

They were currently sitting in one of the booths of Cafe Leblanc, pretending to be customers for two reasons, one was that a businesswoman was currently drinking some coffee from Sojiro and the second reason was because the Cafe wasn't actually closed yet as there was also an old couple getting some late night coffee as well, though they spent most of their time talking to each other.

 

The businesswoman was wearing all black, the specific shade was midnight black, blazer, turtleneck, black suit trousers and black heels. She had long grey hair, the colour of the hair looked like some had turned that colour from stress and some had turned that way from hair dye. Her long hair was asymmetrically styled and pulled to the right, revealing several black hair clips that she had on the left of her hair.

 

In short, she cut a figure of a someone who was married to their job and had a serious attitude in both the workplace and at home. Minato also thought that he saw something resembling a wistful expression on her face, either way, she was still rather young looking, which made the fact that she looked like she was married to her job even more heartbreaking.

 

She was currently sipping coffee and probably pondering something, her gaze was focused on the CRT TV in the corner which was still playing The Tabloid News.

 

Minako was currently focusing on her schoolwork, trying to translate a sentence from a language that she could read to a language that she could not even begin the make heads or tails of, like why the hell does their alphabet have 26 letters and why are the grammar rules for the language so retarded from time to time? Though it was not like she could complain, asking her brother to write down his answers as he was better at translating block text, for him, she would help with his literature homework, even though she found the class to be an absolute joke.

 

The woman in a business suit eventually finished her coffee and got off the stool that she was sitting on, she was about to walk towards the door when she saw the twins in a booth, studying. "Nice to see some students doing some work," She said, her voice carried the, now familiar, tone of someone who was perpetually stressed.

 

Minako was the first to answer "Thank you very much miss," She said, deciding to take the woman's statement as a compliment, the woman then looked at both of them

 

"Do I recognise you two from somewhere?" She mumbled before her eyes lit up in understanding "Are you two the Arisato Twins?" She asked while it was grammatically a question, it was more like a statement.

 

"Yes," Minato answered in his normal deadpan voice "What's it to you?"

 

"Forgive me, I forgot to introduce myself, I'm Niijima Sae," the woman said and both the twins started to notice the similarities between the Niijima sisters "I've seen your files, all of it."

 

Well, that wasn't creepy "Who hasn't seen our files," Minako snarked to her brother

 

"I'm sure quite a few people have, though this is a rare occasion, someone actually seeing all of the files," Minato answered back

 

Sae looked rather unimpressed at that "I've got a sister at Shujin Academy-" she began only to be cut off

 

"Niijima Makoto, I know her, we talk to each other, a lot," Minako said

 

"And I know, if we so much as think of doing anything to her we'll be sued for all we're worth and dragged kicking and screaming back to Juvie," Minato added, his voice as snarky as ever. He looked over and saw that Sojiro looked absolutely appalled "But thank you for the warning anyway,"

 

"Don't stress yourself out," Minako fired as Sae started walking away, looking very annoyed.

 

Oh, they were soooo going to pay for that later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for how long this one took and for this, I have a 3 pronged excuse:  
> 1\. School, they've been throwing some more essays and things like that at me and it is quite frankly, exhausting and leaves little time for fanfic writing. That and not writing for the best part of a week really threw off my groove when it comes to writing, so I'm currently getting back into that.  
> 2\. The scene with Ushimaru, I know some aspects of Japan's issues with Homosexuality, but when it comes to writing opinions that aren't my own, I feel a bit nervous as I try not to strawman their arguments.  
> 3\. Reading other fanfiction, when I don't have time to write on my laptop or I only have my phone with me, it does mean that I spend a large amount of time reading.
> 
> A side note, I only now just realised that I misspelt Makoto's family name, turns out there is an extra 'i' in there and I spent some time going through my chapters to make sure that I removed such issues.
> 
> Also, Morinaga Milk is an actual manga writer and I fully recommend checking out her stuff if you have some free time.
> 
> Anyway, see you later, be sure to comment, it is a sure fire way to trick a fanfic authour into giving you more fanfiction to read.


	15. Justice for One...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Though it seems like a rare occasion nowadays, Justice does occasionally swing her blade at the right people and when this happens, it is always cause for celebration and hope, that maybe Justice's blade will hit the right people again.

**23/04/2018 - 05:00 - Cafe Leblanc - Arisato Minako**

Minako looked up at the ceiling as she lay on the sofa, she only got four hours of sleep that night. She was far too nervous to get much sleep, there were too many things to think about, she hadn't resolved the Ann/Shiho issue, she wanted to make sure that she made a good impression at work and more importantly, she wanted to see if Kamoshida would get locked up.

 

Would the investigation actually pay off, would he actually be able to hire a lawyer who can protect him and be that 0.1% of people who are found innocent in the Japanese Judicial system? Probably not, but she couldn't help but think about, she occasionally rid herself of more unproductive thoughts but that left her with the trifecta of thoughts that she didn't really want to overthink.

 

She eventually settled with staring into the void, trying to remember when there were exams, she made a small "Tch" sound whenever she remembered that there were exams that she would have to do, she would do something but she didn't want to wake her brother up, also that ceiling was looking more interesting by the second.

**23/04/2018 - 7:30 - Shujin Academy - Arisato Minato**

 

Minato knew for a fact that it wasn't a rare occurrence to see members of the police in Tokyo, though usually, they were on foot, patrolling the streets and trying to keep the peace.

 

Though it was odd to see a squad car parked outside what was a prestigious school, especially the school that he went to.

_"What the hell is going on?"_

_"Why are the police here?"_

_"Maybe the delinquents did something."_

_"That'd be fun to watch."_

Minato stood there, in the alleyway that Ryuji had shown him on his first day, prepared to watch the events that were going to happen. Out of the car stepped two police officers, professional as always and Minato had to admit, he felt a small bit of panic when he saw the police, memories of that night flashing through his head.

 

He saw that Kawakami was at the door to the school, she led the officers inside the building and Minato held his breath for a minute waiting to see what would happen, his sister caught up with him and actually bumped into him.

 

"Hey, Mina, what's happening?" Minako asked, sounding a bit confused.

 

"One, you know how much I hate that nickname. Two, it seems the police are going to have some words with Kamoshida," Minato admitted he let himself grin at that, there was something so ... satisfying about seeing justice actually being delivered.

 

"You think they'll arrest him?" She asked

 

"Why wouldn't they, I expect he'll be found guilty as well," Minato answered, there was some fun in knowing his odds of being found innocent.

_“Hey, what are those delinquents_

_doing?"_

_"Why's he smiling at that?"_

_"I can't help but think they're_

_going to mug someone..."_

Minato smirked slightly at the rumours "Hey Minako, apparently, we're going to mug someone," He said to her, just loud enough for some of the gossipers to hear.

 

"Really, that's the first I heard, and here I am without my mugging knife," Minako responded, with an overdramatic sigh, also making sure that she was loud enough for the gossipers to hear her. "Such, a shame, looks like we're going to call the whole thing off," she shrugged.

 

Minato noticed that some of the gossipers started walking faster. It was then that he saw it, Kamoshida was being dragged off by two officers.

 

"Hey, let go of me!" Kamoshida shouted at one of the officers who had already cuffed him. "I haven't done anything!" he shouted at the other police officer, despite himself, Minato started to properly smile. As he was being dragged into the squad car, he shouted one last thing "How dare you treat me like this! You're going to be hearing from my lawyer!"

_"Why the hell is Kamoshida being locked up?"_

_"Maybe that rumours true."_

_"What rumour?"_

_"You don't think it is, though?"_

_"Who knows?"_

If Minato was going to be brutally honest, this was one of the best days he could remember, he only hoped that this wouldn't be the peak.

**23/04/2018 - 8:00 - Shujin Academy - Suzui Shiho**

 

Shiho couldn't believe her ears when she heard that Kamoshida had been arrested, she was ecstatic, scared, but most of all, relieved. She had even asked Ryuji (he shared class with her, though they rarely talked) and he confirmed that Kamoshida had been arrested in the morning.

 

Shiho knew that she should be happy, but there was one small problem and that was the fact that she still had an unresolved problem, which was Minako who she wasn't sure if she was trolling her, which might actually be true, or it might not be true. The Brunette didn't ever seem to see a reason to explain herself to other people and this was no exception. She wondered what her angle was, though a lot could be said about the brunette as a whole.

 

She sighed to herself, to be honest, lunchtime could not come sooner.

**23/04/2018 - 11:00 - Shujin Academy - Arisato Minako**

Minako was wondering what would happen to gym class considering that the coach had been arrested. The answer had come pretty quickly and that was in the form of it being converted to a class of self-study.

 

"Hey, when are the tests?" Minako asked Ann, who slouched at the mention of the tests.

 

"Why'd you have to ask about those, just let me have one goddamn day of enjoyment," Ann moaned, with a small amount of despair in her voice, "to answer your question: it's after Golden Week."

 

Golden Week, Minako had almost forgotten about that, an entire week off to do whatever it was that people did when they were on holiday, though it was a public holiday, which meant that there would be longer queues than usual, but, discounts would also be offered so it balanced out.

 

Not like it mattered anyway, the looming threat of exams would sort of kill the mood, she hated the fact that she would have to study during the holidays.

 

"Thank you," Minako said, reaching into her bag to pull out one of her notebooks, hopefully, her handwriting was legible enough to read, so that she could at least pretend to revise.

 

What an interesting line of thought, one of her teachers had been arrested, she had even helped collect evidence that would be used to find the man guilty and all she could think about was her goddamned exams. That probably said something about her mental state that she wasn't that keen to unpack.

 

**23/04/2018 - 12:30 - Shujin Academy - Arisato Minako**

Minako made her way up to the rooftop of the school, which the gang had claimed as their unofficial meeting spot and it was a good one as well, the gossipers didn't go there, there were some seats that no-one used and it allowed them to take advantage of the good weather.

 

Such a shame that her good mood was ruined whenever Ann dragged her off to the side, oh goody, it was going to be one of those talks.

 

"Minako, we need to talk," Ann told her, having dragged the brunette off from the main spot the group would normally take.

 

"Of course, what do you want to talk about?" Minako responded, smiling slightly, pretending that she didn't know what the problem was, she knew very well what the problem was, Ann wanted blood or at least an explanation, she probably wanted an explanation more.

 

"I need your help," Well that was unexpected. She wanted the Minako’s help! she could just squee right now "What's so funny?" Ah, yeah forgot, she not good at hiding her facial expression.

 

"It's nothing," Minako said, still grinning, "I'm sorry, I must have misheard you, I was sure that you needed my help."

 

"That's what I said," Ann replied, sounding a bit annoyed "I need your help to confess to Shiho," she was blushing and Minako was torn between laughing in Ann's face or making that high pitched squeeing sound, that is reminiscent of a kettle with boiling water, the sound she does whenever something good/cute happens in the manga she reads.

 

"Sure I'll help," is what the brunette eventually came out with, noticing that her voice was slightly higher pitched. She cleared her throat and then said: "I mean, I'll be more than happy to help."

 

"Are you serious?" Was the first thing that came out of Ann's mouth and Minako had to admit, she was a bit miffed at that.

 

"Yeah, I actually do want to help you." Minako responded, sounding serious, "anyway, we should get back to the rest of the group before they suspect something,"

**23/04/2018 - 12:33 - Shujin Academy - Suzui Shiho**

 

When Ann and Minako got back to the group, both of them were smiling, though Minako smiling wasn't anything unusual, that's probably how she copes with most things, while with Ann, it was standard for her to smile.

 

But that smile, she really wished she could see that smile of pure unadulterated joy more, and it just begs the question of what Minako did to get Ann smiling like that. Perhaps Shiho don't even want to know.

 

Maybe the two of them had begun dating? In that case, she would have to wish them the best, despite the fact that the one who she love would not be with me, though the two of them could be commenting on how happy they are that Kamoshida got arrested.

 

"Wait, you saw that piece of shit get arrested?" Ryuji asked Minato, his manner of speech as vulgar as always, he seemed to always want to fit at least one swear into every sentence.

 

"Yeah, it was satisfying..." Minato said, his face certainly did not match the words he was saying, maybe Minako would be better at deciphering what his facial expressions meant, lord knows the two of them are close enough, "It as also immensely amusing to see him shouting at the cops as they dragged him away." Minato added

 

"Yeah, he was shouting stuff like 'You'll talk to my lawyer!' like any lawyer would want to defend him," Minako added, her tone was humorous "Though they probably would if he offered enough, but even then not that many want to be connected to a case like that. He'll probably just get an inept attorney."

 

It was a cruel kind of logic, but it made sense, no one really wanted to be connected with what Kamoshida did and no-one really wanted to defend him, though there would still be some people who would, but that was beside the point. "So... any plans?" Ryuji asked

 

"How about we hit the town and celebrate, I'm pretty sure that we could get into Ryuji's favourite place," Minako suggested, sounding far too enthusiastic

 

 "Good point, you did actually get the job so you can actually pay for the meal," Minato said

 

"My shift starts today, so it can't be today." Minako responds

 

"What exactly does she do?" Ann asks in the beautiful voice of her's

 

"She works at a maid cafe," Minato answered, dropping the words like they were nothing, at the mention of her job, the brunette started to do her best impression of a tomato. Ann and Shiho started snickering, Makoto looked frankly disappointed and Ryuji was flat out laughing and Minato was smirking.

 

This was fun teasing ammo.

**23/04/2018 - 13:40 - Shujin Academy - Suzui Shiho**

Shiho had to admit, between the teasing of Minako and the fact that Kamoshida was locked up, it was enough to more than make this one of the best days that she'll have all year (second only to hearing the prison sentence of Kamoshida), as a result, she had a small grin on her face, she never really allowed herself to have a large grin on her face, it left people believing that she was up to something, especially due to her normally gloomy personality.

 

She felt her phone vibrate in her blazer pocket and slowly but surely pulled out the phone, hoping that Ms Chouno didn't notice the fact that Shiho was breaking school rules by looking at her phone in class.

 

What the cause of the vibration was a single text

 

 **Ko:** Come to the Library at 4 PM, I have something for you.

 

Well, that wasn't ominous.

**23/04/2018 - 15:55 - Shujin Academy - Takamaki Ann**

 

Ann was in the library with Minako, she had pegged it as a brainstorming session. Though there was one question on her mind.

 

"Maid Cafe?" Ann asked the brunette, causing the girl to unleash a tormented groan.

 

"Can we not, please?" She responded, she still kept up a polite smile, but her face looked annoyed,

 

"Come on, spill all the details, do you get a discount?" Ann asked, her tone scandalous, to be honest, she was mainly curious but there was some fun in teasing the brunette who had teased Ann for so long.

 

"If we continue this, then I'll stop helping you with your love life," Minako threatened, her smile was still polite, but her eyes were very annoyed.

 

"We'll see how good you are at brainstorming ideas, then I'll consider it," Ann responded, she didn't want to waste her time on brainstorming that wouldn't really result in anything.

 

When the two eventually got started, Ann decided to make use of the first draft of an unsent love letter. Minako's eyes brightened at seeing this and her smile became genuine, it was easy to tell when they weren't fake because they were just a bit wider than what was considered polite or normal for that matter.

 

She quietly read the love letter, maintaining her happy expression, her eyes quietly scanning the words on the paper. After a solid minute, she put down the love letter and looked Ann square in the eye "I am really glad you never sent this letter," She paused "It's terrible." She gestured to part of the letter "I have been in love with you for many, many years" She said, reading out the lover letter in the sort of voice that you hear reading a cheesy romance novel, "I know that you won't return my feelings because I'm a girl, but I still need to tell you and I still hope beyond hope that you could find it in your heart to accept my feelings and be the Juliet to my Romeo," She continued, before stopping to giggle "You are aware of the ending to that play?"

 

"It was the first draft," Ann defended, while this love letter was unsent, it was actually a copy of the one that she sent for Valentine's Day. "What's wrong with it specifically?"

 

"The 'many, many years' might have something to do with it, an important thing to know about love letters is that while it might seem obvious to you who the writer is, to Shiho she might think that it is someone else." She looked at the love letter "You also didn't leave your name, or like a nickname that she might know you by."

 

"I was really nervous about her rejecting my feelings, so I wanted to leave nothing that would lead back to me,"

 

"And you decided that you would leave a vague message that could relate to you instead"

 

"Yeah." Ann was unsure why Minako looked at her phone and started grinning, "What are you looking at?"

 

"It seems like we have company," Minako said, beckoning someone over, Ann looked at saw that it was Shiho. "Did you hear everything Shiho?" The dark-haired girl nodded, looking rather shocked. Minako stood up and left the library "I think both of you have something to talk about,"

 

Ann found herself cursing the situation that she was in and the brunette in specific as she looked at the shocked face of Shiho, it was over, wasn't it? Shiho knew and she would be disgusted by Ann, "That letter on Valentine's Day, that was you?" Shiho asked, her voice sounding like an angelic chorus, Ann numbly nodded in response to this "Is it true that you were in love with me?"

 

"I-I" Ann began, stuttering slightly, she wasn't used to be nervous about saying things "Yes, it's true." She sighed "I have loved you for quite a while,"

 

"Why?" Was all that Shiho asked, "You could have your pick of girlfriends and you go for me."

 

"Why _wouldn't_ I love you?" Ann responded "You have such wonderful, silky black hair, your smile is just pure beauty, you have such wonderful muscles and when you laugh it makes my heart skip a beat," Ann supplied, trying her best to keep her voice level and not to babble or ramble "Your personality really is the best, you are so selfless, even when you were being beaten, you worried about me, you always loved my lame jokes and never made excuses when it came to me." She sighed, talking about this was embarrassing, especially considering the fact that Shiho hadn't really moved after hearing this "I still remember the day I met you, most of the girls at the school talked about me behind my back, but you just talked to me and offered to be my friend, it was one of the best days of my life." Ann said, really hoping that Shiho would respond "Shiho, I don't care what you say, I've already made my peace with the fact that you won't love me, just please say something."

 

"Why am I only hearing about this _now?_ ” Shiho asked, her voice somewhat hollow.

 

"I've been scared of what you would say, you were one of the few people whose opinions I cared about, I tried to make myself content with only being your friend, I didn't want to burden you with my own selfish feelings," Ann responded, she was having a hard time keeping her voice level, "If you're going to reject me, just do it already, I'm a big girl, I can handle it."

 

"You idiot," Shiho said, Ann felt her mood worsen, so this was it, all those hopes and all those dreams for nothing. She sighed "I won't say anything like that," wait, what "why would I say something like that, when I love you."

 

Ann was wondering if Shiho was being honest or being cruel, it could just be a case of Shiho confessing her platonic love. Ah _platonic love_ , what a hindrance "Shiho, I don't think that my love is the same kind of love that you're thinking about. I want to do things to you that would make even hentai artists blush," Ann said, that line sounded better in her head "And after that, I want to be able to live with you until we're both old and grey."

 

"Funny, that's the kind of love I feel for you as well." Ann blushed heavily at that, was she being serious? "I didn't ever really figure out how to tell you about my own feelings," She giggled at that "I can't believe we were both dancing around an issue that didn't exist."

 

Yeah, when put like that, it made Ann think that they were effectively worrying over very little. It almost brought a smile to her face, though she wasn't entirely sure how to ask Shiho out on a date.

**23/04/2018 - 18:00 - Niijima Sisters' Flat - Niijima Makoto**

 

Makoto was sitting at the dinner table, waiting, she had already eaten her dinner and was now waiting, she looked down at her phone again and sighed, she had gotten a text earlier

 

 **Sis:** Makoto we are going to have a talk

 **Sis:** Make sure you are home.

 

Makoto wasn't sure what was scarier the fact that she could detect her sister's anger over the texts or the fact that she wanted to talk.

 

She heard the door open and saw her sister walk in, dressed in her iconic black and grey suit. her face was a mask of barely restrained anger, mixed with ... concern? She put her bag down and took off her shoes when she was finished she took a seat across from Makoto at the dinner table.

 

"Makoto, the most curious case came across my desk today" Sae began, her tone was faux-casual and Makoto could guess that it was about Kamoshida "When did you plan to tell me about the fact that your gym teacher was a child abusing paedophile?" Well, that was blunt.

 

"I didn't want to bother you, sis," Makoto said, not really thinking of a reason. "You're always so busy all the time and I didn't want to worry you as well."

 

"You know I always-" Sae began, only to be cut off

 

"You don't, you've yelled at me before for taking up too much of your time and I know you work hard, so I didn't want to put any more pressure on you."

 

"Point taken." Sae conceded, sounding a bit offended, but she understood the point "So, what did you do about your gym teacher's tendencies, or how did you find about it?"

 

"One of the transfer students told me, he then told me that he and some of his friends were gathering evidence." Sae's face turned sour at the mention of the transfer students though it would probably be because they were criminals

 

"You trusted him?"

 

"I didn't really, but what he said made sense, it explained why Suzui-san was so intent on jumping off the roof of the school."

 

"Wait, a girl was about to commit suicide at your school?" Sae asked, she really didn't like being kept in the dark about most things

 

"The principal wanted a media blackout about the incident since Suzui-san was talked down by the other transfer student, the principal was able to keep a lid on it." Makoto wanted to add 'presumably by sitting on it' but it did not fit with the conversation "After a while, I was able to identify that there was, in fact, a large amount of abuse being perpetrated, I was even able to interview one of the students." Makoto added, she admitted, that she was proud of the fact that she was able to display her ability to investigate cases. "Eventually, we managed to talk one of our teachers into tipping off the police and interviewing students, since they had better powers to interview students, well, more than a student council could muster."

 

Sae appeared to be thinking about what she was just told, her face was stern and neutral as she mentally processed the flow of information that Makoto gave her. Eventually, she decided that her facial expression would be one of pride and annoyance, an interesting combination "I'm still annoyed that you didn't tell me what was going on, I could have pulled a few strings and got a professional investigation on him, no problem and I'm disappointed that you didn't trust me enough to tell me about him." She looked off to the side "though I am proud of your courage and initiative and your investigatory abilities."

 

Makoto resisted every urge she had to squee at the fact that her sister had approved of her, something that never really happened that often these days.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to end the chapter there because I figured that it was a good location.
> 
> For starters, Kamoshida had been locked up, awaiting trial (It's Japan, their legal system is not the best, but in the case of Kamoshida, it fits as he does not deserve the best).
> 
> Secondly, Ann and Shiho have finally got around to confessing to each other which just warms my cold heart and I am glad because I don't have to write them dancing around their feelings, now I get to write how they interact in public and in private. More importantly, the way that they were forced to confess to each other is just a perfect Minako style method.
> 
> Thirdly, Makoto deserves praise from her sister and as such, she got it. I also figured that Sae would be concerned that her sister didn't tell her about the whole abusive gym teacher thing. 
> 
> Anyway, Kudos and Comments are always appreciated. I desperately need your thoughts as it is very good for motivating me (also, started writing this chapter on Thursday, finished on Saturday and I'm running a quest, I'm quite pleased with myself for once.)
> 
> A considered tag for this fic was "Kamoshida is a Prison Bitch"


	16. A Sunday to Remember

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Days off either come into two categories, the type that you remember and the type that you can't. Sometimes, it's nice to have a day that you'll remember for quite a while and for all the right reasons.

**24/04/2018 - 07:30 - Inokashira Park - Arisato Minako**

 

Minako was sitting on a park bench at Inokashira, she felt ... bored. Sure Kamoshida was in jail which was wonderful, but she had nothing else to do now.

 

Ann and Shiho now know about each other's feelings, so all that was left was for them to get together, there was a little bit of satisfaction from making the two realise their feelings.

 

She had got a job, so there was that level of income, so she wouldn't have to borrow money from her brother.

 

School was going well, self-study allowed for extra time to focus on her studies.

 

There was the problem of her own love life. Let's see what her past romantic partners: No-one. How about her past dates: One, and that one was when she was figuring herself out.

 

She was not sure what it said about herself that her response to solving a major problem with her school was the fact that she was bored.

**24/04/2018 - 07:35 - Inokashira Park - Takamaki Ann**

Ann was unsure of what to do, she would admit, she had no idea of what to do when it came to love, she was able to go through the motions when it came to dating Kamoshida, though that was just to make it look like she didn't abhor the man, he already knew that she hated him.

 

Now there was the problem that Shiho and Ann had come to an understanding but then it led to the fact that neither really knew what to do in this situation.

 

She saw Minako sitting o a park bench and sat down next to the brunette.

 

"Good Morning Ann," Minako said, her voice spoke of boredom.

 

"Minako" Ann said, colder than she intended, Ann wasn't sure how to deal with the brunette or what her deal even was, the girl seemed to like helping people but choose some of the worst methods of doing so, engineering a case where Ann would talk about her feelings in front of Shiho was a very prominent example.

 

"So how's Shiho?" the brunette asked, the tone of her voice was somewhat cheerful.

 

"She's alright, now that she knows about my feelings for her, sort of wants to go out during Golden Week." The blonde replied twirling a single finger in her hair, the gang were going out tonight to celebrate Kamoshida getting locked up, but in the morning no one had any idea of what to do. "I guess I should thank you for confessing to Shiho." The brunette smiled at that, clearly enjoying being acknowledged for something.

 

"No problem" The brunette responded. "Well, actually it was kind of a problem, but I had fun helping you."

 

"Don't you mean 'teasing'?" Ann asked, "Or do you actually mean 'helping'?"

 

"Yes."

**24/04/2018 - 12:20 - Shiho's House - Suzui Shiho**

 

Shiho was sure of one thing, her world had finally got happier. For starters, she now knew that Ann felt the same way towards her. Secondly, Kamoshida was locked up and thirdly, it seems like her parents had finally started coming home at regular hours and were actually present in the house on Sunday.

 

Shiho was spending most of the day in her room, she was trying to figure out what to wear tonight when the gang went out to celebrate. As she looked through her wardrobe, she came to a realisation: All of her clothes were very plain.

 

It was actually surprising when she thought about it, when she was still on the volleyball team, her casual clothing meant very little to her and she never really paid attention to what she wore, now that she looks back on it, most of her clothes are a variation of pale blue jeans and white polo shirts or t-shirts. She was friends (and hopefully something more) with a model, it made very little sense to her that she had such plain clothing.

 

She was currently dressed in a pair of fitted baby blue jeans and a white tank-top and the fact that she was looking through a wardrobe filled with exactly the same kind of clothes was amusing.

 

Shiho huffed and sat down on the ground, she didn't have any good clothes to wear to the group meeting. She couldn't just cancel on them, it was at this time that she remembered who the other members of the gang were:

 

Ryuji - Who had an infamously bad sense of fashion (nicknamed the 'Whatever he can get off the floor' style)

 

Minako - Something of a hipster, has a bit of an emo sense of fashion

 

Minato - Something of an emo sense of fashion, probably has a pair of rainbow coloured shoes that he hides.

 

Makoto - Wasn't sure on that one actually, it was probably smart and really mature. (Never saw that one out of school)

 

Ann - A lot of red was in her clothes, she always also seemed to brown shoes as well

 

Shiho realised that she could just ask Ann for help with buying clothes during Golden Week, sure a shopping date is not exactly what most people think when dates are mentioned, but it was better than nothing.

 

She also knew that Minako had no room to tease her, anything that the brunette said could be shot back because the girl worked in a maid cafe.

 

Though thinking of the gang, she had to remind her parents that she was going out tonight. "Hey Mom," She shouted out of the room, her mother opened the door to the room.

 

Her mother was a woman called Kimiko, she had long shining black hair that poured over her back like a waterfall, though with stress some of her hair was turning grey, she was rather alright in her figure as well, giving off a very mature businesswoman vibe.

 

"Yes, honey?" She said, her voice was sickly sweet. It was obvious that she was trying to sound caring, Shiho just thought it sounded insincere

 

"I'm going out with my friends tonight, is that okay?" Shiho asked.

 

"Why, is it a mixer?" Mom said, "If it is, no."

 

"It's not a mixer, my friends want to go out," Shiho responded

 

"Okay," Mom said, she didn't sound all that pleased. Shiho wondered what her Mom would do.

**24/04/2018 - 13:20 - Cafe Leblanc - Sakura Sojiro**

Sojiro had to admit, he didn't have that many good days, the fact that most of his cafe's clientele were old and didn't have many friends were part of the reason, another reason was probably the fact that most of the clientele were the sort of people who liked the peace and quiet and as such, attracting more customers to the cafe seemed like a bad idea to them.

 

Such a shame that it wasn't a good idea for him, he made a loss most days when it came down to it. He almost wished that he actually took money from the twin's family, though he couldn't bring himself to do that.

 

Today was a good day though, not because of his customers, no it was rarely a good day when they were concerned, that old couple was a good example, never bought enough coffee to justify the amount of time they spent in the cafe, honestly, four hours and a single cup, between the two of them.

 

Why today was a good day because of the fact that he was able to get his surrogate daughter, Futaba out of her room and managed to get her in the cafe, sure, she was lurking in one of the darkest corners of the room, but it was a step in the right direction.

 

She was quietly sipping coffee in her corner of the room, looking at her smartphone, Sojiro thought about those jokes that some of his more middle-aged clients said about kids with their phones, Futaba was worse, she almost always had a screen in front of her face at some point.

 

It was a wonder her glasses still worked for her, though it might not actually, given how close she looks at her screens, it might be possible that her glasses are no longer fitted for her eyesight.

 

If nothing else, Sojiro was glad that Futaba was becoming less of a shut-in.

**24/04/2018 - 14:40 - Inokashira Park - Takamaki Ann**

 

Minako had left a few hours ago, apparently getting bored of the quiet and left the blonde with nothing but her thoughts.

 

Ann always relied on the principle of not over-thinking things, doing that tended to make the situation worse than it actually was, but she felt her thoughts drift towards Shiho, Ann was scared of messing it up with the dark-haired girl, Ann loved Shiho and didn't want to mess up the relationship, mostly because she felt that her relationship shouldn't end on a sour note.

 

Eventually, after the better part of an hour was spent overthinking a relationship, Ann got up and did a quick stretch, before going off back to her apartment, it was then that she felt it.

 

Ann had a good sense of when someone was watching her, she learnt it as she worked as a model and right now, she knew that she was being watched intently, she cast a quick look around the park but didn't spot anyone who looked out of place, there was a young man who was painting, but he looked intently focused on his painting so chances are it wasn't him.

 

Regardless, Ann didn't like the feeling of being watched most of the time and due to the fact that she couldn't even tell who was looking at her, she decided to increase the pace at which she walked.

**24/04/2018 - 14:50 - Shibuya - Sakamoto Ryuji**

 

Ryuji had to admit, the fact that Kamoshida had been locked up made him feel fantastic, all of that misery that he faced for a year, all that ridicule, suddenly everything was better, it wasn't worth it, but it was still quite a good thing.

 

Ryuji was currently playing some arcade shooter right about now and had to admit, he was doing better than normal, that didn't mean that he was actually getting into the top ten, but hey, it's not like he was complaining, it allowed him to relieve stress and got his mind off the various homework assignments that he had to do half-heartedly.

 

Though his thoughts were on a certain transfer student, the blue-haired one. The boy had a nice agile figure, not all that fit but he was more than willing to help out. A nice sarcastic personality combined with a sharp intellect that Ryuji never could really understand, he wanted to know what was going on in that beautiful mind.

 

Huh, Ryuji's thoughts turned very gay for a second there, it was probably nothing.

**24/04/2018 - 15:50 - Shiho's House - Suzui Kimiko**

 

Kimiko was unsure of why her daughter was going out, however, after seeing the bruises on Shiho's face, she knew that Shiho might have joined the wrong crowd, so it was her responsibility to save her daughter from that.

 

She got dressed in one of her many suits, a two-piece navy-suit with no tie. She fixed her hair into a loose bun so that she looked like a businesswoman who was on her way into an evening shift. To help preserve that image, she brought a book with her, a romance novel because it helped solidify the image.

 

She saw her daughter leave a few minutes beforehand, dressed in a pair of fitted light blue jeans with a few rips (she never understood what the rage was with rips in clothes), a white polo shirt and a light blue zip-up hoody, she cast a somewhat innocent image.

 

After she looked at herself in the mirror and was content with how she looked in the mirror and began to follow her daughter to the train station.

**24/04/2018 - 16:30 - Tokyo Subway - Suzui Kimiko**

 

Kimiko felt somewhat bad about the fact that she was following her daughter, however, her pursuit was bearing some fruit already, Shiho had met up with a rather unkempt looking blond boy with obviously bleached hair, the man stood out like a sore thumb, mostly because of the fact that he was a walking fashion disaster (honestly, a purple tracksuit jacket?).

 

Her daughter was playing on her phone much like the blond boy, Kimiko played the role of businesswoman on the train and read the novel, looking like a bored woman waiting for her stop.

 

Looking at the blond boy, she could determine a few things about him, he was probably fit based off the physique that he had and he was probably a delinquent based on his bleached hair, he might have been poor because of the fact that his bleached hair looked like it was poorly treated.

 

What sort of life had Shiho lived when Kimiko was away at work? All she heard was that Shiho was an avid player of Volleyball and was very sporty, though that was what she had heard and Shiho did have a large number of bruises on her, Kimiko never found the right way to ask why she had those bruises. Maybe she had fallen in with a gang recently? Though those bruises were always there, maybe she had been bullied?

**24/04/2018 - 17:40 - Sato's Beef Bowls - Suzui Kimiko**

 

Kimiko was unsure of her daughter's group of friends.

 

For starters, there was the blond boy she had met on the train, the boy walked with a slight limp and practically screamed delinquent.

 

Secondly, there was a couple who they met up with, a blue haired boy and a brunette. The blue-haired boy wore a pair of dark blue jeans and black boots, complete with an off-colour white t-shirt and black-ish brown blazer, his hair was styled into a fringe that almost covered one of his eyes. The girl, on the other hand, wore a pair of fitted black jeans (rips at the knees), a pair of black trainers, complete with half-rims and a black hoody with a sinister design on it, her hair was styled into a short high ponytail.

 

Third, a girl who looked rather sophisticated and mature, all things considered. She wore brown boots, black suit trousers, a black turtleneck and a turquoise coat. Her hair was an auburn brown and was styled in a short bob with a small braid over it.

 

The final member of Shiho's friends was a blonde girl, the girl had bright blue eyes, and her hair was styled into two long pigtails that went down to her shoulders. She wore a pair of beat-up red converse trainers, black tights, an off-colour white skirt, over that was a lilac shirt that was not tucked in and an open red and white letterman jacket. Kimiko remembered this girl as 'Ann' that girl who was staying with Shiho the other day.

 

What an interesting group of people, Kimiko was glad that when she got to her table, she was within earshot of the group, but was not in direct sight of them.

 

"So, gang, today I would like to propose a toast." One of the girls said with a cheery sound in her voice, Kimiko assumed that it was the ponytailed brunette. "To our gym teacher and his guilty verdict." What? what had she just heard, they hoped that their gym teacher was found guilty, why? there was a resounding "Kampai" from the group, the irony was not lost on some of the middle-aged customers that the students were drinking non-alcoholic drinks.

 

"Glad that piece of shit got arrested," one of the boys said, cheery and somewhat angry

 

"Damn straight," the other boy said, his voice apathetic, "if he gets found innocent, it'll be a miscarriage of justice."

 

"Right you are, brother," the cheery girl from before said, "I never thought I'd be glad to see someone go to jail, but he proved me wrong." These were teenagers talking about their teacher going to jail, why were they so happy? Why were they talking about miscarriages of justice? "We got justice for you Shiho, and if that doesn't make you feel good, I'm sure that Ann will."

 

Kimiko could feel her world breaking down, was her daughter gay? She was raised to be better than that, or was the ponytailed girl gay? The blonde girl, she would have suspected, but still. What were they talking about, what did she mean by justice for Shiho. There was a list of questions that Kimiko felt the need to ask.

 

"Minako, stop teasing Shiho." The second boy said in his apathetic tone, she risked a glance and saw that it was the blue-haired boy.

 

"Sure thing, Mina" the girl, Minako said, her tone humourous, the mention of the name caused everyone at the table to laugh.

 

"Mina?" Shiho asked, trying to cover up her snickering

 

"It's what she used to call me as a child," The boy said, his tone was faux-angry, she could almost imagine the gritted teeth.

 

"So..." Shiho began "Minako, Mina," there was a small huff at that "If you don't mind me asking: How'd you get arrested?" What? Shiho was hanging around criminals.

 

"So, you want to know our tragic backstory?" Minako said, her tone was darkening, but still had some humour "Well, brother you do the honours."

 

"Well...." The boy, apparently called Mina, said: "It was late one night, we were heading home from cram school, Uncle Shinzi had signed us up for it without our permission."

 

"As we were heading home, we took a shortcut as we wanted to get home faster," Minako continued "We didn't normally take it at night but we were in a hurry. That was when we saw it." She paused for effect and Kimiko wondered if these two teenagers were making up this story as they went or if they had the story pre-planned.

 

"A bald man was forcing himself onto a woman, he shouting various things about money and how, and I quote, the police are my bitches, end quote." She could almost imagine the air-quotes

 

"The man was obviously drunk, and she was obviously unwilling, her screaming probably told us that much." Minako picked up, "I was the first to act and I pushed him to the ground, Mina here went to the woman to comfort her."

 

"The police had shown up and the drunken man told the police that he had been assaulted by us, the woman was even coerced into giving a testimony against us," Mina added, "We got sued and an assault charge was put on our permanent record."

 

"Yeah..." Minako said, her tone somewhat sad "Most of the friends we had built up at Yasogami High had flat-out abandoned us and we found ourselves on probation in Tokyo." Minako sighed "So that's the portion of our tragic backstory that I'm willing to tell you."

 

Kimiko scoffed, it was obviously fabricated like the police would be that corrupt or incompetent to be unable to put two and two together in order to figure out who was responsible.

 

"A miscarriage of justice if I ever heard one." One of the girls said, Kimiko assumed that it was the mature looking girl "Honestly when I'm a cop, I'll try to change things."

 

"When we can vote, then we'll change things," Ann joked.

 

"Can we just get this eaten?" Mina asked, "Ko and I have to get home soon."

 

"I'll ask about Ko later, but why do you have to go soon?" The mature girl asked

 

"Our guardian is teaching us how to make coffee, we don't want to miss his lessons." Minako answered, "I should take you all there during Golden Week, his coffee is godly."

 

Kimiko couldn't be bothered to listen to the rest of their conversation and focused on her meal, there was far too much on her mind, she also had to get home before her daughter did.

**24/04/2018 - 19:30 - Cafe Leblanc - Arisato Minato**

 

Minato and Minako had finally arrived at Leblanc after a long train journey and found that Sojiro was waiting for them with a customer, in addition, they quickly put their things upstairs and got the pair of aprons that Sojiro kept under the counter ready.

 

"Now then, since you’re going to be working the store, I'll have to hammer in the basics." Sojiro began, his voice had hit what Minato called a 'mentoring' tone "You know what I'm talking about, right?"

 

"I'm going to go with making coffee," Minako said, her tone humorous and the customer who was still there was smirking slightly at her humour.

 

"Yup, glad to see you understand that much, I was hardly going to teach you how to hit on people." He said, he looked off to the side "Those lessons are for later." He cleared his throat. "This store's not the busiest around, but I'm real particular on how the coffee is made here, it's a Coffee and Curry place after all." He looked the twins square in the eye "I'll kick you out no questions asked if you serve a bad cup, got that. I have a reputation to uphold."

 

The customer, a rather gaudy looking middle-aged woman wearing a pink jacket and floral dress spoke up "Let me tell you, So-chan definitely does things right with his coffee." Minato resisted the urge to smirk at the mention of the nickname. "It goes really well with that special curry of his, I can't imagine ordering anything other than the set meal every time."

 

Sojiro rubbed the back of his neck slightly "What can I say, each of my regulars gets an experience personally tailored to them. It's always fun meeting new customers and tailoring their experience."

 

The gaudy woman spoke up again "Can you tell me the key to that wonderful flavour? I'd love to make it at home sometime,"

 

"Sorry, trade secret, you understand right. Though feel free to guess what the secret is based on your own taste though." He smirked as he said that, Minato wasn't sure what the secret was, but he was determined to find it out.

 

" _Cheapstake_." The woman said, her voice was faux-teasing "Keeping secrets from me even though you know you've already stolen my heart with your food."

 

"His food steals the hearts of everyone, young and old," Minako said, speaking up, her tone was amused.

 

"I'm glad to hear it." Sojiro said to the brunette before turning to the woman "Anyway, how about a nice dessert for the road, it's only three hundred yen." Minato wasn't sure what it was about Sojiro but the man seemed to be not only a god of coffee and curry but also customer service. He was determined to find out his divine secret.

**24/04/2018 - 20:30 - Cafe Leblanc - Arisato Minako**

 

Eventually, when the woman left with her stomach full of Sojiro's food and her heart stolen, Sojiro turned back to the twins.

 

"When you run a shop, you get all sorts of customers, some good, some bad, but that doesn't matter. Knowing their personalities is absolutely vital. It's what being in the food service is all about, anyone can serve a cup of coffee," Sojiro said "But you need to be able to serve it so well that they'll feel like they’re at home. Understand?"

 

Both the twins nodded, Sojiro was good at lecturing and teaching and gave clear and concise instructions, trusting his pupils would be able to pick up on what he meant.

 

The bell on the door rung, signalling the entrance of a new customer, it begged the question of who would be visiting at this hour. Sojiro turned and looked shocked, "Welco-" He stopped as he saw who had entered.

 

It was a rather pudgy looking middle-aged man with a black baseball cap on, complete with a black jacket and a pair of off-colour black trousers.

 

"You," Sojiro said eloquently, both the twins had never heard him sound like this, it could be best described as a mixture of scared and surprised, his face looked like a deer in the headlights.

 

The man put on a smile that didn't go up to his eyes "Hello there!" He said, his voice was that kind of cheerful that made someone worried, the kind that made you start inching towards the nearest exit in the room or any out in the conversation. "It's been quite a while, Sakura-san! I heard you open a shop, so here I am!" His face turned to a somewhat hurt expression "It wouldn't have killed you to mention it to me though." He looked around the store like a real-estate agent taking in the warm atmosphere of the place "Got a real nice location here, right by the station, near a residential area, really good at picking up commuters."

 

Sakura's face was stern and his anger was barely hidden as he simply said "Your order?"

 

"No small talk?" the man replied, crossing his arms, "that's cold, Sakura, really cold." He noticed something "but this smell ... sure brings back memories! You're still making that curry, huh? Guess you haven't gotten over her yet..."

 

"Your order, _sir_?" Sojiro responded, trying to steer the conversation back on track.

 

The man laughed, the laugh was about as fake as his smile and half as disquieting as his tone "You're so pushy today, Sakura-san. I just stopped in to say hi." he paused looking at his watch "I'll be back again soon. Bye!" He turned on his heels and went back the way he came, slamming the door closed on his way out.

 

After Sojiro was sure that the man had left, he let go of some breath that he was holding and, with an annoyed tone, said: "Don't know where he caught wind of this place."

 

"Seemed suspicious," Minako said.

 

"Like he was planning on blackmailing or extorting you," Minato added,

 

Sojiro smiled at that "Glad to see you two have an eye for some things after all." He turned back to the twins, "Well, nothing’s going to help with _that_." he muttered under his breath before addressing the twins "If you have time for questions, you have time to be learning about bean types, you're not going to be of use to me if you can't pick up on the ABCs sometime soon." He looked specifically at Minako first, "This might actually help you out with your job, as for you," he looked at Minato "Ladies love a guy who knows his coffee. This isn't such a bad deal for you."

 

"I want the ladies to love me." He said with that apathetic tone of his, he was probably mentally replacing the word 'ladies' with 'boys'

 

Sojiro laughed at Minato's response "If you only you were this obedient all the time, I'd have no bother what so ever." He put his hand on his chin as he looked the twins up and down "Either way, I'm gonna teach you two right. That way, I'll be able to sit back and relax once in a while, watching both of you work instead."

 

Minako smiled at this and nodded, a deeper bond with Sojiro meant that they'd be trusted more and learning how to make good coffee was a skill, hell, they might be able to get a good job if they owned the place or started up their own coffee shop with this skill.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I find it hugely amusing that a no-powers verse Persona 5 basically turns into a Coffee-Shop AU.
> 
> Also, here comes both the Art-hoe and Memelord. This pleases me.
> 
> I figured that Shiho's parents would probably be a bit remorseful over the fact that they were basically absent during most of their daughter's life, so they decided to make it up to her, only they don't know how. So I decided that her mother would try to become Shiho's Beloved Smother.
> 
> Anyone, thanks for reading, be sure to leave me with your thoughts and hit that Kudos button if you haven't already, I'll see ya next time, have a good Easter.


	17. School is Fun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some people, mostly those who are ill-informed believe that school is a fun place to be full of learning, however, as any intellectual will tell you, school is a terrible place to be, with your friends often being the only reason you stick around.

**25/04/2018 - 07:30 - Shujin Academy - Arisato Minako**

 

_"I heard he beat his students"_

_"No really? I thought_

_they just liked bandages"_

_"Shut up."_

_"He was so scary..."_

Minako had to admit, the arrest of Kamoshida meant that the school was abuzz with rumours, she always loved screwing with the Shujin Academy Rumour Mill but this was wonderful, not only was justice being delivered but the Rumour Mill wasn't focused on her.

_"Do you think the Principal knew?"_

_"Of course he did, the fat_

_bastard just doesn't care"_

_"Don't let him hear you say that."_

_"What's he going to do,_

_sit on me?"_

This was just beautiful and it got better when Kawakami walked in, she looked rather pleased with herself, hell she also looked somewhat well rested, which was an improvement for her.

 

"Excuse me, class," Kawakami said "Before we take the roll there is something that I need to tell you, as your all well aware, Kamoshida has recently been arrested before you start celebrating, I'm here to tell you that the principal has requested that you pretend to be heartbroken by his arrest." Her face was scrunched up like she was cringing when she read those words "I'm also supposed to tell you that you're not to talk to any news outlets regarding the arrest of Kamoshida." That was met with various boo's, Minako was surprised that some of the students were actually doing that, "Hey, I'm just the messenger, I don't agree with this crap either." She said, shrugging. The students heard what she said and stopped booing as they just processed what their teacher had said. "Now, on to the roll call."

 

Minako was surprised, there was something almost comical about how Kawakami had turned from _'tired homeroom teacher'_ to _'only the best teacher in the entire damn school'_

 

 

**25/04/2018 - 8:00 - Shujin Academy - Suzui Shiho**

 

Shiho had to admit, it was hard to focus on class, her thoughts were drifting to either Ann or Volleyball. When had her life come down to the point when that was very only two ports of call? It wasn't like she didn't mind, Volleyball was a really good sport and a fun one at that. And Ann was ... Ann, so pretty wonderful and good looking.

 

Shiho had to admit, she was trying to focus in class today, though she wasn't trying all that hard when it came down to it. The fact that it was English didn't help, she could barely figure out the language and the words being said barely registered with her, it was something about grammatical rules, though she had it on pretty good authority that no one who spoke the language actually cared about those rules. Ms Chuno herself looked annoyed as she talked about the grammatical rules, her heavily made-up features cast into a minor scowl as she read over grammar rules that she probably struggled over when she was young.

 

Shiho wondered how exactly anyone learnt English it seemed like such a hard language, too many different sounds and far too many words in that language as well, the grammar was also weird as well. Maybe it was a similar experience to native English speakers trying to learn Japanese?

 

She looked over to see how Ryuji was faring, there was a simple answer to that: he wasn't. Instead, he was sleeping in the middle of class. She found that somewhat amusing, mostly because she had some knowledge of him before he became the school delinquent and he was one of the least threatening and somewhat dorky people she knew and well... it was hard to see the delinquent Ryuji in him as he sat napping.

 

Ms Chuno coughed and Shiho focused her attention back to the front of the class, "Miss Suzui." Chuno began, using the foreign title, "since you're clearly paying attention," Chuno continued, the Japanese words being heavily accented with an American accent that she didn't quite recognise "Translate this sentence from English to Japanese." She pointed to a sentence that she had written on the blackboard.

 

"Of course," Shiho said, she was not really confident about the language, Ann had helped her with the pronunciation of words and similar things, but she never really picked up many skills when it came to translating. She looked at the unfamiliar words and mumbled them “ _I wasn't paying attention in class._ " the words barely left her mouth as she tried to mentally translate the English sentence to coherent Japanese "I wasn't" she mumbled, trying to figure out a sentence that made sense, she recognised the word 'paying' that typically had connections with money, but what did it have to do with class?

 

"Can't understand it?" Chuno asked, a single eyebrow raised, Shiho shook her head "Understandable, in the interest of time, I'll tell you what it means: I wasn't paying attention in class." Shiho felt some anger at the insult the teacher gave her. Wasn't her fault that she had more important things on her mind than a language that she would rarely use. She glanced back and Ryuji was still asleep, it was understandable that no one was waking him up, most teachers had flat out given up on the ex-athlete.

 

**25/04/2018 - 9:30 - Shujin Acaademy - Takamaki Ann**

 

Ann was currently in another Japanese lesson and the words of the teacher were not registering. She looked at the clock and silently wished that time could go faster.

 

Her thoughts drifted towards the incident yesterday, someone was staring at her quite intently, it creeped her out, she had just got one creeper off her and now another had risen to take her place. Was it a constant cycle? Such thoughts just made Ann huff slightly, the words of the teacher still weren't registering.

 

She tried to tune into the lesson but about a minute later, she found herself being bored again and tuned out the teacher again.

 

**25/04/2018 - 12:10 - Shujin Academy - Arisato Minato**

 

Minato was sitting on one of the desks that were on the roof of the school. _All was well in Shujin_. He was content and there didn't seem to be many problems. Minato made sure not to say that out loud, he didn't want to jinx himself and he found that the prospect of saying something like that out loud would be ... unproductive.

 

To be honest, most of the gang were sitting around talking away their lunch time. He looked at his notes, exam days were coming and he would be damned if his grade average would drop, his academic standards were at risk here and he wouldn't cheat like some delinquent.

 

"Hey, Minato," Ryuji said, getting the blue-haired boy's attention. "Think you could help me prepare for the tests?" This got the attention of everyone in the group. Minako let her face drop into a pitying look, Ann, Shiho and Makoto all looked curious at his statement.

 

"What got you interested in academics all of a sudden?" Makoto asked, sounding very curious.

 

"Well, considering that we are still waiting for Kamoshida's verdict and will be for a while, I think that I should try to improve my grades." He rubbed his right hand against the back of his neck "It'll help me get a job despite my shitty grades."

 

Minato looked Ryuji dead in the eye. This blond delinquent, a man who had less than stellar intellect but had his rare moments of brilliance, this was one of them. "Ryuji, just so you know: I will run this material over you to the point where remembering it will become instinctual, I will make sure that the only thing you think about at night will be my lectures. Got it?" Ryuji gulped at that and Minako looked at Ryuji with pity.

 

"Got it," Ryuji answered bravely, foolishly perhaps, but bravely. "When do we start?" Minako continued looking at Ryuji with barely disguised pity. "Why do you keep looking at me like that?" Minato looked at Ryuji with a single half-smirk.

 

"You don't know what you're getting yourself into, get out while you still have the chance," Minako said, pleading with Ryuji.

 

"How bad can it be?" Ryuji naively asked, as if he was asking the Gods of irony to strike him down.

 

"How often do you sleep during class?" Minako asked, "No, better question, how often do you space out during class?"

 

"Pretty often, why?" Ryuji answered the consequences of what he agreed to finally sink in.

 

"Poor child, you will not survive the winter," Minako said vaguely, "honestly though, Minato will run you ragged and more importantly, he will enjoy doing so." The aforementioned blue-haired boy gave his best sadistic half-grin in response to being mentioned. "I'm begging you to reconsider."

**25/04/2018 - 12:30 - Shujin Academy - Suzui Shiho**

 

After the rather loud discussion of Ryuji getting privately, and personally, tutored by Minato had finished, Shiho found her thoughts resting back on her home, she realised that she didn't really know her parents and she doubted that they knew her either.

 

They spent so much time away from the house that Shiho didn't really know what their preferences were, how they acted when they were angry, sad or happy. One of the few times they were home would be during Christmas and even then, dinner there was an awkward affair with them stiffly referring to each other and being unable to make anything more than polite small talk with each other.

 

She wondered what had caused her mother to look at Shiho so sourly. Though it was somewhat better than her dad trying patch things up, he tried so hard to be hip and it somehow made it worse when he did so, she was still trying to forget the flurry of outdated slang she had heard when her dad tried to talk to her.

 

It actually made her angry to a small degree, her mother never cared when her daughter walked home with bruises on her face and when she was angry, she didn't ask Shiho about it. Maybe when mother got home, then they could talk about it.

 

When she thought about it, she remembered the feeling of being watched when she was walking with Ryuji and meeting up with her friends, was she being stalked? If so, then who?

 

She was broken out of her musings by a hand flashing in front of her face "Hey, Shiho." Minako's voice broke through, waving her hand in front of Shiho's face "Earth calling Shiho, come in Shiho."

 

"Yeah?" She asked she was somewhat thankful that the brunette had broken Shiho out of a bad thought process.

 

"You were scowling a lot just now." Minako supplied "and I don't think that's your resting face either, so tell me, is there something wrong?" The brunette, although she sometimes didn't act like it, actually cared for everyone in the group, even if she had a pretty bad way of caring.

 

"Nah, don't worry about it." Shiho said, dropping into her normal method of getting people to stop worrying about her "It's probably nothing, just family problems." At the mention of the phrase 'family problems', Ann's face darkened in understanding.

 

So much for that method of evasion.

**25/04/2018 - 13:20 - Shujin Academy - Takamaki Ann**

 

Ann was left wondering a few things, one of the things that managed to float its way to the front of her mind was what Shiho was trying to avoid.

 

Maybe it was the family problems that she had mentioned at lunchtime, from what Ann remembered, Shiho had a pretty apathetic family, so much so that they didn't even seem to raise an eyebrow at her staying with Shiho all day, even during a school day. She didn't like when Shiho tried to get people to stop worrying about her, it probably one of the things that caused Shiho to be so prepared to take her own life. Ann still regretted not being able to see the signs of Shiho sinking into depression.

 

She was in the middle of a history class, which meant that she was being taught by Inui.

 

To say that the man was vanilla would be an understatement, he looked like the default character one would get out of a character customisation screen. About average height for a Japanese man, he was thin and was able to maintain a good posture while teaching. His features were averagely Japanese, his hair was pretty standard, the only interesting thing being the hair which was combed to the right of his head in something that could almost become a fringe if it was combed downwards as well.

 

His outfit was about as boring as the man was, he wore black shoes, black suit trousers, white shirt, red tie and a dark grey suit jacket (he must really be living on the edge), though she would be negligent not to mention his grey waistcoat, he was wearing it today, all of the clothes looked worn from years of usage. The man's face was stern and he had a reputation for being a no-nonsense teacher, though this led to his nickname among the students 'Ushimasu-lite'. She was snapped out of her musings when he coughed lightly.

 

"Takamaki-san, could you possibly tell me what Roman Emperor participated in the Olympics?" At the mention of the question, Minako's hand shot straight up, Minato also looked vaguely interested. Ann quickly ran through the names of Roman Emperors that she knew of, all five of the names: Ceaser, Nero, and what were the other one's names? Well, it looked like she had to take a guess and she wasn't even sure that Nero was actually a real Roman Emperor.

 

"Would it be Nero?" Ann answered.

 

"Are you asking me that or answering me?" Inui responded, it should be mentioned that was one of his pet peeves, he didn't like it when students didn't answer confidently, something about preparing them for life or something similar.

 

"Emperor Nero was the Roman Emperor who participated in the Olympics," Ann answered, she prepared herself to be reprimanded for answering incorrectly.

 

"Well done." He said that was basically his way of saying 'correct' "Can anyone tell me what exactly he did at the Olympics?" He asked, "Well, Arisato-san." He paused realising what he had done "The one who is a walking rules violation." Minato's head shot up at that and he realised that Inui was referring to him.

 

"Emperor Nero participated in Singing at the Olympics," Minato answered in his own way, intoning as if reading from a book "This was because Emperor Nero made up the event. Unfortunately, his singing skills were worse than his candle making skills." He also apparently had no chill if that dark joke was anything to go by.

 

Inui cleared his throat at that, "Quite." He responded "Since Nero held supreme power in the Roman Empire, he made Singing a competition within the Olympics, an event that he won gold for, though this was largely because of the fact that he was Emperor and not because he was particularly skilled at singing. As Arisato-san has stated, he had particularly bad singing skills and was tone deaf, he even used to hold long singing performances where the audience would not be allowed to leave, women pretended to go into labour and men would pretend to die in order to leave these events." He finished with a small chuckle, why was it that History teachers found amusement in the smallest things. "Because of these actions, as well as the abundant reports of his lecherous side, he became what was known as a Despot."

 

Ann could not stand this class.

**25/04/2018 - 13:30 - Shujin Academy - Suzui Shiho**

 

Shiho was stuck in a class with Kawakami, someone who Minako had described as _'only the best teacher in the entire damn school'_ sure, the woman had helped during the Kamoshida case, but she couldn't have been that good, right?

 

Kawakami's teaching style was often moderately fast, she wrote a lot on the board, her elegant hiragana and kanji gracing the blackboard as she wrote out concepts on the board, she generally didn't like long lectures, she would write on the board, answer student’s questions and ask questions of students to make sure that they understood what was being taught. "Sakamoto-san." She asked, causing the blond boy to snap to attention "What's the common usage of kakushinhan again, regarding an action you take?" Ryuji had not been paying attention in class, hadn't he, it was very likely after all, he was often lost in thought, blanking out or straight up sleeping in class, it actually made Shiho slightly concerned when she thought about it.

 

"It's knowing your actions are wrong, right?" He said, looking over his notes. There was a look of hope on Kawakami's face as she processed what Ryuji had said.

 

"That is correct Sakamoto-san." She said, clearly not quite believing the words coming out of her own mouth. "Anyway, the real meaning of kakushinhan is the opposite, so what is it?"

 

Ryuji was thinking about it, despite what many believed the boy was somewhat smart, just never really had any conviction in class. "Conviction that you are right?" He answered.

 

"Sakamoto-san, I never thought I would say this, but good job." She responded, a look of pride and accomplishment on her face "Now please keep it up for the rest of the year."

 

"Yes, miss." He answered, sounding very proud of himself, Shiho was almost sure she was dreaming, Ryuji was actually becoming smart. What nightmarish hell dimension was she living in? After pinching herself, she decided that she was, in fact, living in reality. The gossipers had apparently started to process what had just happened as well.

_"Did, did Ryuji just answer a question?"_

_"More importantly, did he answer it correctly?"_

_"Okay, what the hell is going on?"_

Well, at least they weren't blaming it on witchcraft like that one time last year.

**25/04/2018 - 16:40 - Shibuya - Takamaki Ann**

 

Ann was wondering how exactly she was going to broach the topic of Shiho's home life, the dark-haired girl had a habit of shutting people out when it came to deal with her problems, it was very admirable but it was also very unhelpful when it came down to it.

 

She twirled a finger in her hair as she sat down on some bench and thought about things, it was then she felt it again, someone was looking at her very intently, she tried to look around for the culprit but couldn't see anyone around. If she was lucky it was a separate incident from the one at Inokashira Park and that it wasn't the same guy, however, if she was unlucky, it was the same guy. The gaze was the same intensity and she felt sick at being glared at despite not being able to see the person.

 

She couldn't see anyone who really stood out, the closest she got was a sighting of that young boy she saw painting yesterday. Wait, what if? No, that's not likely. Ann started to walk home, making sure to get into large crowds in order to help lose the man who was staring at her, she wouldn't be surprised if the man would start following her, so all she had to do was make sure that she lost him in the crowd.

**25/04/2018 - 18:00 - Shiho's House - Suzui Shiho**

When Shiho had entered the house she entered her room almost immediately to start on what homework she could do, though that was not much, she really couldn't focus as her head was a flurry with thoughts which ranged from dating Ann to what had pissed her mother off so much.

 

She was currently sitting at her kotatsu and was trying to get her English homework done before it piled up, the keyword was trying. In actuality, she could not really focus on the subject, oh what she wouldn't give to have Minato explain the entire subject to her in his deadpan voice.

 

Though her somewhat frantic homework session was interrupted when her mother entered her room, without even knocking as well.

 

"Shiho?" She asked, her voice was stern but there was a hint of 'caring mother' in her tone as well. "Can we have a chat?"

 

"Of course, mom." She said, preparing to get up, but was shocked when her mother sat down at the kotatsu with her daughter. "Okay, so what do you want to talk about?"

 

Shiho's mom started pondering on how to phrase what she was about to say "Have you started seeing someone recently?" She asked.

 

"Mom!" Shiho responded, out of all the questions she expected she never thought that'd be one, "what makes you think I'm dating someone?"

 

"Well, you've been happier lately." Shiho looked shocked at that. "You could've been discussing your boyfriend with that Ann girl the other week." Little did she know "And while you were out with your friends, I found a bunch of unsent love letters." How did she find those? Shiho had hidden them in a hidden compartment in her drawers.

 

"Fine, I've found someone I'm interested in, but we haven't started dating." Shiho said it was true, but she was keeping a few details out of the exchange "No need to worry."

 

"Oh, I am worried, I followed you to your meeting with your friends." Mom said

 

"Wait, you followed me to when I was meeting my friends?" Shiho asked. She was honestly not entirely sure if she was hearing that correctly. Her mother was about to start talking but Shiho felt the need to continue "No, I'm sorry mom, I'm not going to let you say anything, you followed your own daughter to a meeting with her friends and then you no doubt eavesdropped on us, due to the fact that you would hardly start worrying just from looking at us."

 

"Let your mother talk please." Mom responded, "Shiho, I try to care for you, I really do and I can't help but think you might have fallen in with the wrong crowd." She sighed, thinking back to what she remembered from eavesdropping on her daughter "Two of your friends are criminals, all of them want their teacher to go to jail and more importantly, one of them mentioned how Ann could make you satisfied." The two women of the Suzui family looked at each other, eyes meeting.

 

"I know the Arisato Twins are criminals, I knew that when I talked to them, they're good people, better than half the school for that matter." She added. "I know we want Kamoshida to go to jail, he deserves it for every second he walked free from jail and every time he abused his students." Shiho was getting somewhat angry

 

"Why'd you never tell me he was abusing you?" Mom asked

 

"Because you were never at home, how I could tell someone who I saw only like five minutes a day?" She said, asking a rhetorical question "Moreover, I doubt you would've cared, you never showed any sign of caring, even when your daughter was walking home limping with bruises." She tried to control her anger before she said something that she'd regret "Oh but now when I found a group of people who actually care for me, when I found people who act more like family than my actual family, I've suddenly fallen in with the wrong group and you need to save me from that."

 

"I'm trying to protect you."

 

"I'm sixteen mom, I don't need your protection." Shiho responded, "In fact, I wanted to tell you something anyway, though I'm sure you figured it out, seeing as you eavesdropped on my conversations and read my love letters." She sighed, there was no going back if she stopped, mom would undoubtedly re-read the love letters and figure it out. "I'm a lesbian." She said finally, this was not how she imagined coming out to her family, being angry with her mother and sitting at a kotatsu. Though she found that there was something worse when she looked at her mom, the woman wasn't responding.

 

"Where did I go wrong?" She mumbled to herself "Was it because I was never home?" She asked herself "Why, what did I do to cause you to think that way?" She paused, as if in thought for a second before continuing "It's that Foreign girl isn't it?"

 

"What, no," Shiho said, she would have said that she was born like this, but her mother continued

 

"Was it the criminal girl?" She asked.

 

"No, it was not Minako" She answered, "I was born this way, mom." Her voice was resolute, she had to at least get that much through to her mother.

 

Her mother actually started to tear up, "After all these years, my beautiful baby girl has turned into a faggot." She sniffed "Maybe I shouldn't have focused so much on my job, I could have stopped this from happening."

 

"No, you would've been able to come to terms with me earlier in life." Shiho disagreed with her mother on a lot of points, to put it simply, she didn't like what her mother was saying and she would be damned if she didn't get at least a few words in.

 

**25/04/2018 - 21:20 - Ann's Apartment - Takamaki Ann**

 

Ann was sitting on the sofa in her apartment, trying to figure out what could be bothering Shiho, all the while ignoring her cat, _Morgana_ who was trying to get Ann's attention.

 

The cat itself was rather smart and could see that its owner was troubled by something. Ann still paid her cat little attention as she thought more about it. It had to be Shiho's parents, the girl didn't have any siblings that Ann knew of, the girl was wondering what it would be about, Shiho's parents were apathetic, that was all Ann had seen, she wasn't entirely sure what would make Shiho worry so much.

 

She was knocked out of her musings from the sound of someone knocking the door. Strange, Ann didn't expect anyone today. Ann was getting off the sofa when the knocking began again, it was a polite knock, the sort you would expect from a salesman.

 

Ann looked through the peephole in her door. What she saw was a crying Shiho. The blonde quickly opened the door and came face to face with the dark haired girl, she was still in her school uniform and she had a small suitcase with her as well.

 

Ann put the pieces together in her head. Shiho was kicked out of her house. "Ann, do you mind if I come in?" Shiho asked, she was trying to keep her voice steady, but there were still plenty of tears on her face. Ann moved out of the way and was surprised as Shiho acted like nothing was wrong, politely taking her shoes off and casually stepping into Ann's apartment like she wasn't crying.

 

"Shiho, were you kicked out of your house?" Ann asked, she knew it was something of a dumb question, but it was probably a good question to start with.

 

The dark-haired girl nodded, "Do... do you mind if I stay with you tonight?" She asked. Ann felt her face heat up, she didn't have a spare room in her apartment and well, looking at Shiho she would have to help the dark-haired girl, the two were best friends (and romantic interests)

 

“I don’t mind at all.” Was all Ann could answer with. She’d ask Shiho about why she got kicked out later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you had a good Easter, I had an alright Easter (I spent six hours with my extended family and I don't know most of them). And I hope you were taking care of yourselves.
> 
> Anyway, moving on.  
> Firstly, Kawakami gets her recognition as the best damn teacher in the entirety of Shujin (honestly, if it was a real school and if I could speak fluent Japanese and read the language, I'd fucking attend it just for Kawakami)  
> Secondly, I bloody missed writing those rumours and with just how venomous these rumours were, it was fun writing them.  
> Thirdly, I'm basing Shiho reading and trying to translate English to Japanese off both my own experience trying to learn Japanese and watching Kizuna AI try to learn English (Which is bloody adorable)  
> Fourthly, Here comes the plot, also known as Yusuke, also known as Art-hoe (I shall proceed to call him that for the rest of time)  
> Fifthly, I had to look at the teacher's character model to be able to see that he wore a waistcoat. What is my life at this point?
> 
> More importantly, when it comes to Shiho, I seem to have the author's syndrome of loving character's suffering, I swear I want her to have a lovely and happy life with Ann. Also, Morgana has made it into the fic, I doubted that either of the Arisatos would want him due to the fact that from Persona 3, it is clear they are more dog people so I decided that Ann would be the owner (or would be owned) by everyone's least favourite sleep obsessed Cat.
> 
> Two Last things, I decided that Ryuji would resort to trying to learn to stop anxiety from kicking in, he will not survive the winter. Secondly, make sure to leave a Kudos if you haven't already and be sure to leave a comment, it is honestly one of the best things you could do for an author, we bloody live off those things.


	18. Regretful Words

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes we regret the words that we say and wish that we could not say those words, sometimes that wish comes immediately after the deed, or hours after when it is far too late to take anything back.
> 
> Either way, it takes a certain amount of commitment to make sure that you will see your deeds through.

**26/04/2018 - 3:40 - Ann's Apartment - Takamaki Ann**

 

Ann couldn't get to sleep. Questions raced through her head at the speed of sound as she lay there on her sofa, occasionally adjusting how she lay there as she tried to get comfortable on the sofa. What exactly was going on in her life? It was like there was some sort of divine being who loved screwing around with her life.

 

Other, more serious, questions were focused on the fact that it seemed that when she got rid of Kamoshida, there seemed to be a brand new problem in her life, though, unlike Kamoshida, she didn't have a face to attach to this problem.

 

Though, if she had to guess, it would probably be some middle-aged guy, probably not well groomed, probably a massive slob. Though it could just be some dissatisfied office worker now that she thought about it, it's not like there is a set defined look for a stalker and it could just be individual occasions and not connected, that was something that she hoped beyond hope was the case, despite how unlikely it seemed.

 

Though there was another question: Why exactly was Shiho kicked out of her house? Was it her parents? Maybe that was what she was scowling about yesterday? Though if that was the case, she wouldn't have shown up so late? Though she might have been kicked out of her house after a conversation with her parents.

 

Ann groaned and looked up at the ceiling, Morgana had already fallen asleep.

 

She couldn't believe that she wasn't able to figure it out: It was probably the result of a conversation with Shiho's parents, Ann didn't know exactly what their views were so it might actually be a case of Shiho's parents. This brought about several questions, would Shiho be able to stay in school? Would she be able to follow her ambition of doing volleyball?

 

Ugh. Just why couldn't she get to sleep?

 

**26/04/2018 - 6:30 - Ann's Apartment - Suzui Shiho**

 

When Shiho woke up, she initially wondered where she was. The bed was unfamiliar as was the bedsheets, it was then that the memories of yesterday came back.

 

She wasn't entirely sure what she would call her relationship with Ann. A small part of her settled on the term 'Romantic Interests' but then again, she doubted that such a relationship would have her sleeping in Ann's bed.

 

Shiho's vision started to blur as she started to think about the fact that she was kicked out of her house, every teenager wants to leave the house, but few would've wanted to leave the house in such a way, it was not exactly what she would have anticipated and it did leave several questions: Who'd be paying for her education? Would she be able to get her things from home?

 

She sighed and felt a single tear trickle its way down her cheek. Her family could go to hell. She supposed that she should get up.

 

Shiho swung her legs and got out of bed, she always was pleased whenever she saw her fading bruises, it was a sign that she was moving past him, which was a good thing, though she wasn't entirely sure if she could look at the sport she loved the same way again.

**26/04/2018 - 6:45 - Ann's Apartment - Takamaki Ann**

"Science can definitely not answer this question," Ann said to herself as she looked down at what was once her bowl of cereal. She wasn't entirely sure how the process of pouring milk into cereal transformed the bowl into some sort of lethal bio-weapon, the milk was in date as was the cereal.

 

She looked at the bowl some more, how did she manage to screw up this badly? This was basic breakfast, even five-year-olds could do this perfectly!

 

She mumbled something about being cursed to herself as she disposed of the bio-weapon that was once her breakfast and slammed some toast into her toaster if this didn't work, she was just going to buy something from a store on the way to school.

 

Ann heard a noise and turned around to be greeted with the sight of Shiho in full school uniform and looking ... somewhat better than how she looked last night, though Shiho looked like she was ready to stab someone last night, so anything was an improvement. Now, she only looked like if someone addressed her they would be promptly cut, but not stabbed.

 

"Need. Caffeine." She groaned out as she walked up to Ann's (broken) Coffee Maker.

 

"Shiho that's broken," Ann told her, to her surprise the Dark-haired girl looked like someone had just murdered her dog and started doing the can-can over its corpse, her eyes were full of dread and existential horror and it also looked like her left eye was twitching slightly.

 

"But why?" was all the dark-haired girl could muster "Why keep it if it's broken?"

 

"I haven't gotten around to replacing it," Ann responded, the machine had broken about a month ago and Ann had started buying coffee from a convenience store on her way to school, despite its dreadful taste.

 

"Well, first thing on the list," Shiho said, her voice a mixture of dread, disappointment and tiredness, the blonde girl was not surprised at all that Shiho was addicted to caffeine, pretty much every student was at this point. Shiho stopped suddenly and smelt something "What smells like it should be burnt immediately?"

 

"That would be my cereal," Ann responded, she knew that there wasn't exactly a point in hiding how poor her breakfast making skills were. "I'm making toast instead. Want some?"

 

"If it is anything like your cereal, then I would rather talk to Eiko-senpai," Shiho responded

 

The toast came out burnt and Ann looked at the black toast and the toaster which was set at seven, she was almost sure that it was at three before. "Fuck it, convenience store breakfast it is." She said out loud, barely restraining herself from swearing like a sailor. She reached for her blazer and school bag as Shiho started looking panicked. "What's wrong?"

 

"I left my school bag at home." Shiho responded, getting to the point quickly.

 

"Well ... shit."

**26/04/2018 - 7:40 - Shujin Academy - Sakamoto Ryuji**

 

Ryuji would admit that he was not a particularly smart man by any means, hell he was often at the bottom of the class when it came to tests. Though he hoped that he'd be able to change that for the better with his arrangement with Minato.

 

Though, if there was one thing that he would admit, he would say that he has an alright grasp on how to understand people's emotions.

 

He could tell that during the lunch yesterday, Shiho was feeling bad, like very bad, admittedly a month ago, that wouldn't be really all that unusual, she had spent the better part of the first term and the entirety of last year in a state of seemingly perpetual angst, but when he saw her on Sunday she looked absolutely and positively happy almost bordering on a level where he would be very concerned about it.

 

He didn't try to think about why she was worried, Ryuji knew that thinking was his weak point, he was more sort of a 'do' person than a 'think' person. He did see Shiho this morning, after all, she was in the same classroom as him and she looked rather ... well, depressed.

 

Her features were downcast, as usual, there were some tear streaks on her face, not as usual. She looked like death and gave off a gloomy aura, which was par for the course at this point. Though her bruises were starting to fade, it was almost impressive considering the amount of shit she went through but put up with.

 

Ryuji wanted to ask the dumb question of whether or not she was alright. He really did, but he didn't really want to make her angry or bring her problems to the surface, he wished that Minato was nearby, that apathetic man would know what to do, he almost always did seem to know what to do.

 

What the hell... what's the worst that could happen?

 

"Hey, Shiho-chan?" Ryuji began, he was not good at this emotional stuff, though he would admit, he wasn't good at conversation. "I know this might be a dumb question, but are you OK?"

 

Shiho looked like she wanted to punch him in the face, so yeah it was something of a dumb question. "I...." Shiho began, not she was probably not sure how to phrase what she was about to say or probably not wanting to say it. "I guess... you could say I have problems at home." She said, the way the dark-haired girl had said that and how hesitant she was made the blond worried. Was she being abused at home? If that was the case then Ryuji would be more than happy than to punch Shiho's parents in their face, though it was unlikely that such problems would be so easily solved "I'll talk about it over lunchtime." She said, finishing the discussion.

 

Ryuji did the only thing he really could do. "Okay then." He said, trying to make sure that he did not overreact and that he reminded her that she was going to tell the gang at lunchtime. "Just remember, everyone wants to help you Shiho."

 

When Ryuji saw the face of Ushimaru, their homeroom teacher as he entered the room with his usual disdainful expression. The blond made sure to get back to his seat quickly to avoid getting pelted with chalk.

**26/04/2018 - 8:00 - Shujin Academy - Arisato Minato**

 

Minato always felt some level of pride when it came to social situations, there was always something about being able to manipulate a conversation away from his own glaring mental problems. The art of conversation was such a tricky topic full of many factors that most people, even without realising it, can judge on the fly. Facial expressions and body language were of course, heavily involved in this process, which is why from the time Ann entered the room that he could tell that something else was wrong.

 

A small part of him wanted to joke comment about 'trouble in paradise' but that was more a Minako thing to do. Minato, on the other hand, was getting himself somewhat worried, even if he tried not to worry about a lot of things, his more protective instincts as the older brother did kick in and hold on a second.

 

Wait... he just realised something, he was starting to care about people who weren't his sister. He wasn't sure where it began, but he has started to care for other people, it was rather odd and he didn't mind it too much.

 

Though the fact that it had broken his decade-long method of protecting himself from emotional harm was ... troubling, an interesting example of the concept of how very little is permanent in life, but that did not stop it from troublesome.

 

He tuned back into the class that he was supposed to be paying attention to, something about literature. Ah, the class that he struggled with most, the teachers were seriously giving the author far too much credit as he was sure that most professional (or amateur) authors don't put meaning behind every single word.

 

He forced himself to listen to his teacher so that he could at least take some notes.

**26/04/2018 - 10:20 - Shujin Academy - Niijima Makoto**

 

There was something that Makoto found funny about the fact that her last year of school had barely started and they were already getting the students to fill in their college applications, this was because if one of her teachers mentioned how something 'looked good on an application' or that they had to make their 'grades good for college' then she wasn't going to be held responsible for her actions.

 

She barely paid attention to what her maths teacher was saying, they had already covered the concept in class yesterday and Makoto's wonderful revision habits had kept such things in mind, mostly, though working on the calculations earlier had reminded her of what the hell she was supposed to do.

 

Her pen crossed the page as she quietly worked on another calculation while Ms Usami was talking. It wasn't that Makoto disrespected her teacher per say, it was just more a case of the fact that she had nothing but contempt for Shujin, the only reason she was still there was because of the fact that she needed the grades to get into college and the letter of recommendation that the principal writes for his favoured students wouldn't hurt, it might very well get her a scholarship. But none of that didn't mean that she didn't want to burn the school down to the ground.

 

Though there was some grim satisfaction that could be gained in seeing Principal Kobayakawa squirm as he tried to control the damage that the Kamoshida Fiasco had done to the school's reputation, something that caused the massive man to sweat profusely as he talked to people over the phone to inquisitive reporters, claiming that he had no knowledge what Kamoshida was doing, that look on his face was wonderful, the lingering stench of sweat within the principal's room, decidedly less so.

 

Makoto wondered when she became so disillusioned with the school.

 

**26/04/2018 - 12:15 - Shujin Academy - Suzui Shiho**

 

Shiho was very nervous, she was kicked out of her house and she was about to tell the rest of the group. Her nerves were not helped by the fact that Ryuji was looking at her like an expectant child.

 

Okay, breath in, breath out. Shiho braced herself as she opened her mouth "Yesterday..." She paused, trying to see how to phrase this without revealing her secret, she didn't entirely know how the rest of them would react "my mom kicked me out of the house." Well, that was a way to say it, the group gasped, Ryuji looked absolutely appalled, Makoto looked like she wanted to bring a righteous judgement upon someone, Minato looked vaguely angry but concerned while Minako looked like she wanted to get a second assault charge on her record. Ann's face was saddened even if she already knew that Shiho was kicked out of her house.

 

"Why?" Minato asked, still looking quite concerned.

 

"I... got into something of a disagreement with my mom..." Shiho said, trailing off. She didn't really want to talk about it, she didn't want to take up everyone else's valuable time with her own, sometimes insignificant, problem-

 

"Shiho stop thinking that." Ann said, her tone authoritative "we all care for you, we wouldn't be here if we didn't." She reassured.

 

Shiho breathed in and out, attempting to steel her nerves in case she ended up having to tell them. "Yeah, so I got into a disagreement with my mother and she kicked me out of the house because of it."

 

Minato looked like he was formulating a good response, "So what kind of disagreement was it?" It was such a shame that his sister beat him to the punch.

 

The dark-haired girl sighed, lying to them was an option, but they'd probably think poorly of her after it. "at first she was worried that I had found someone I was interested in, she was right but I had found out that she went through my stack of-" she sighed, it was embarrassing that she even had those "-unfinished or unsent love letters."

 

Minako was clearly trying to remember this for future teasing, Ann looked somewhat surprised at that, Ryuji looked like he was listening and actually paying attention. Makoto was clearly paying attention with all the professionalism and neverending patience of a movie psychiatrist.

 

"Wait, you actually a stack of unfinished love letters?" Ann asked, her voice incredulous and she was clearly on the verge of laughing.

 

"Yeah, I would've sent them to you, but I never found the courage," Shiho replied, then there was a slight beat of silence as she realised what she said out loud, literally no one was surprised, not even Ryuji, who could be as dense as a pile of bricks. "So yeah... moving on, this conversation then led to her telling me that she stalked me to our meeting on Sunday when we were celebrating Kamoshida getting locked up and as a result of that, believed that I was falling in with the wrong crowd." She laughed at that, it wasn't untrue, if anything, it was quite accurate. "I lashed out at her, letting out my pent-up frustrations at her apathy in my life until now. I told her everything, including the fact that I was gay." She winced, knowing that the cat was out of the bag, she looked at her friends, none of them were reacting negatively which was a good thing. "She did not react all that well, she wondered where she went wrong, I told her that it wasn't because of any of her terrible parenting, she then wondered if it was Ann who turned me gay." Ann looked very pleased with such an accusation, "when I told her that she didn't turn me gay, she guessed that it was 'that criminal girl'-" she put air quotations around the words, Minako chuckled at that "- I told her that she had nothing to do with it."

 

"I'm guessing she kicked you out sometime after that?" Minato said, his voice heavy and his eyes were clearly concerned.

 

"Yeah, she gave me enough time to stuff some clothes into a suitcase, though no indication of whether or not I would be going back to school or if I could return." She felt nervous at the fact she was spilling a recent activity in her life.

 

"That's fucking stupid." Ryuji said, finally speaking up with all the swearing that was expected of him "Your mom kicked out her daughter just because she liked girls." He scoffed "that sounds like your mother's a shitty parent. No offence." He added the last part as an afterthought, though Shiho knew that it was his way of caring.

 

"None taken, if anything, I feel like joining in," Shiho responded, sure it sounded like she was finally indulging in some teenage rebellion, but in her mind, it would be well justified. "She's an overbearing control freak who spent the better part of two decades focusing so much on her work that she didn't even notice that her daughter was being beaten." She added in a way that showed that she was totally not bitter.

 

"So... wait," Minako said, hopefully training to keep Shiho off the path of being irredeemably bitter and becoming a delinquent "who are you staying with?"

 

"I'm staying with my girlfriend of course!" She said, she wasn't entirely sure what her relationship was with the blonde girl, but she was more than willing to say that they are girlfriends, besides it sounded better than 'romantic interest' which was just a mouthful. Minako started making a high pitched squealing sound, similar to that of a rapidly deflating balloon, with what looked like a small trail of red trickling out of her nose.

 

"So..." Minato said, ignoring his sister and her nosebleed "congratulations on the relationship." he added, his voice sounding somewhat pleased.

**26/04/2018 - 14:00 - Shujin Academy - Sakamoto Ryuji**

 

Ryuji had to admit, the news that Shiho had been kicked out of her house pissed him off. He hated the sort of parent who just treated their kids like garbage and kicked them around for any minor offence. Though he wasn't going to say that he didn't have a similar problem with his mother, though it was mostly because she was overworked and wanted her son to be able to achieve his scholarship which meant that he wasn't allowed to work any part-time jobs, he didn't forget the face that she made when he told her that he kicked out of the track team.

 

Though he did try to pay attention to class, he honestly was, but the fact that he was very pissed off did not exactly lend itself to good concentration, the only thing he could really concentrate on would be the source of his rage, who was possibly in working an office building or in Shiho's bedroom rummaging around for her daughter's possessions.

 

Ryuji tried to calm himself about the problem of Shiho's mother is one of the worst kinds of parents, not that it did much, there was quite a lot wrong with it and when it came to parents, there was not much you would've needed to do in order to set him off.

 

He tried to focus on class again, even if the words of the teacher barely even registered, though that was mainly because maths is one of the worst subjects to learn when it comes down to it. He was sure that some of the smarter students would be able to follow the subject, but for the most part, most of the students looked flat-out confused.

 

He hoped that Minato would be able to clear up some things for him

**26/04/2018 - 16:00 - Shujin Academy - Sakamoto Ryuji**

 

Minato did not clear things up for Ryuji. Well, he did kind of clear it up, seeing as it was a case of one-to-one teaching, so Ryuji felt that he could actually interrupt Minato's lectures for questions, it also helped that Minato used more simple words to explain the concept, but it did not exactly help the fact that most of the concepts shown in Maths flew straight over his head.

 

A thing that Ryuji noticed is that Minato wasn't exactly all that charismatic and quick on his feet in social situations without his sister nearby who would chime in to help explain things, to be honest, Ryuji half expected the brunette to chime in everytime Minato paused.

 

"So... can we do a subject that is not maths?" Ryuji asked, the notebook he had open in front of him was making his head hurt. Minato silently nodded and put his maths notebook back into his bag and started searching around for his other notebooks silently.

 

Ryuji took this moment to notice some things about the blue-haired boy in front of him, firstly, Minato's fringe covered most of his forehead and his left eye, it did give him that dark and brooding look that Minato seemed to favour if his mannerisms and general style of clothing was anything to go by. those grey eyes sometimes shone like silver but when Minato was serious it looked like hard steel.

 

Eventually, the blue-haired boy pulled out what looked like an English notebook. "Okay, so let's see how you wrap your head around English." Ryuji internally groaned, he was under no illusions about his intelligence, he knew he wasn't the brightest, but why did Minato decide that English was a good idea?

**26/04/2018 - 17:00 - Grey Cloud Cafe - Arisato Minako**

 

Minako had a small dislike for the maid costume she was wearing, sure it could've been worse, it did not exactly make her feel any better considering the job that she was doing. She wasn't exactly one for customer service, she just really grabbed the job because it was in Akihabara, she was sure that job at the flower shop would've been better for her, but she mainly wanted to be close to a place that was so relevant to her interests. It didn't detract from the fact that this job was exhausting no matter what any older person might say, there was something so draining about pretending to be happy for so long and not being able to join into any anime related conversations that her customers might be having.

 

Though a certain customer in the cafe didn't help either. It was an older gentleman, didn't really look like he was into computers or anime and looked thoroughly disgusted with the entire city district if the fact that he wore that look on his face since he walked into the cafe and hasn't abandoned that look says something. He really wasn't helping because it felt like he was always judging you, he had that sort of look and his eyes always seemed to follow someone around the room.

 

"Hello Master, may I take your order?" Minako asked. She had braced he....herself for a scolding about not serving him the second he stepped into the room, though that was more sort of the thing that happens when it comes to people who are about forty or older, they tend to not be the most understanding. He was reading the menu with a look of disgust.

 

"I'll have an... Americano." He said, his voice was that sort of old person voice that made you think that he wanted to talk to the manager. "Could you make it quickly as well." He added, a bit of politeness barely hiding the fact that he was somewhat miffed about the lack of service.

 

"Of course, master," Minako responded, putting a bit of fake joy into her voice, she supposed that she shouldn't judge a book by its cover, he could be one of those closet otakus she had heard about, or it could be a businessman who took a wrong turn and ended up in the weeb end of town.

 

Very curious indeed, she might want to investigate this one further, it's not like she had anything else to do.

**26/04/2018 - 18:30 - Ann's Apartment - Suzui Shiho**

 

Shiho would admit that she felt somewhat guilty over the fact that she had allowed herself to say such things, both to Ryuji and to her mother, she would admit that it was very liberating, but that didn't mean she didn't regret it as the mistake that it was, especially the case with her mother, the case where she was talking to Ryuji and Co was largely just cathartic in purpose.

 

She unplugged her phone from the charger where she had put it yesterday. She looked and noticed that aside from her phone is on silent, that she had fifteen messages from her mother. Sighing, the dark-haired teenager opened her phone and began to check the messages

 

**Mom:** I hope I never see you again

**Mom:** You got everything you deserved for being a dyke

**Mom:** I'll tell your father about this and we'll see what he thinks

**Mom:** He says that he is worried about you

**Mom:** He wants you to come back home

**Mom:** Please come back home, honey

**Mom:** At least tell me where you are

**Mom:** Answer me!

**Mom:** Is it the foreign girl?

**Mom:** Is it 'Minako' or whatever her name was?

**Mom:** Why won't you answer me?

**Mom:** I promise I'll forgive you if you just come home.

**Mom:** Don't tell me you spent the night on the streets

**Mom:** I forgive you for everything, just please respond to me

**Mom:** Shiho please come home, I regret everything that I said last night

 

Shiho looked at the collection of texts, she supposed that her father was less concerned with her sexuality than mother was. She felt somewhat bad about causing her mother to worry so much, but there was the slight matter of the fact that all of her belongings were at her house. She moved her fingers across the on-screen keyboard.

**Shiho:** I don't care if you regret what you said, you still said it.

 

She considered texting Ann, but she knew that the blonde girl was working right now, so such a decision would wait until the blonde girl got back home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy Hell, this chapter took longer than expected, I totally blame it on studying for my exams, which I should totally be doing right about now.
> 
> Also, sorry in advance if I get some things about Coffee wrong, for someone who spends a lot of time typing and watching videoes, I don't really drink coffee all that much.
> 
> So standard things, comment, kudos (if you haven't already) and take care of yourselves.
> 
> EDIT 30/05/2018: Accidentally uploaded two chapters.


	19. Sorry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, so sorry.

Sorry everyone, especially those who offered praise and those who offered criticism.

 

My muse for this work has dried up, so I am going to be discontinuing this, so I apologise.

 

Sorry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been putting this off for quite a while now.


End file.
